Why does everyone give a bad rating to a comment that criticizes the book? You made a great comment, and I gave you 10 points for actually bothering to make an intelligent point.<br><br>I'm with you all the way about Emma (Emma sucks--I can't understand why people think she's "the complete heroine"), but I have to disagree with your general analysis of Jane Austen. Imagination may not have been what Jane Austen was going for in her books so much as flawless representation--and subtle critique--of her own class's bizarre social system based entirely on polite subtleties. Appropriately, the differences in her novels are subtle as well, but most people even now can sense a significant difference of tone and theme between Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. Also, the fact that Jane Austen wrote about the day-to-day lives of women, with actual female protagonists, broke some significant literary ground.<br>