Question (JA's Legacy)

[antonia1990]

We all know that Jane Austen is still a very influential author. In my research on finding more authors who write about the same topics she does, I've come across the fact that contemporary authors write fiction books set in the time of Jane Austen, called "historical romance".

What is your opinion on these types of books? Do you think they portray the era correctly, respect the rules back then and so on?

[Scheherazade]

Interestingly enough, if JA wrote those books today, probably they would be disregarded as "chick lit"...

[antonia1990]

I agree, I think they would, though with the type of books we see on the shelves I doubt she would get published. The publishers would probably want her to spice up her books.

But I am interested in your opinion on the authors that try to portray JA era through their fiction. What do you think of these types of books? Do they do justice to the period in which she lived in, or are they just cheap imitations without character study and depth?

[Newcomer-2]

May I recommend Emily Eden's (1797 -1860) two novels: The Semi-Attached Couple and The Semi-Detached house.
“Her eye was sharp; her books are comedies of manners and her dialogue is racy and sharp. Unlike greater, but less aristocratic novelists, she hnew how the upper classes in the nineteen century talked among themselves”
I think that Emily Eden provides a depth and acuity to the social critique in Austen's P&P and especially Persuasion.