How Jane Austen Became My Heroine
250 YEARS OF JANE AUSTEN (1/6). The English novelist, author of “Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Emma,” was born on December 16, 1775. Her 250th birthday is being celebrated this year with a fervor that extends far beyond literature. Enough to inspire Franco-German journalist Annabelle Hirsch, who didn’t count herself among her fans, to follow in her footsteps in the United Kingdom. A story published in “Die Zeit,” which constitutes the first episode of our series dedicated to Jane Austen.
Let's start with a confession: I'd never read a Jane Austen novel until now, nor, indeed, had I intended to. Austen. The name reminds me of a female author [1775-1817] who encourages women to wait over a cup of tea until some guy, a "Mister Darcy" [the novelist's most famous male hero, created in 1813 in Pride and Prejudice ], comes along to explain their own desires and tell them who they really are.
Then I learned that December would mark the writer's 250th birthday—and that the event had been capturing many people's attention since the beginning of this year. I began to doubt my preconceptions: if her work had managed to endure so long, it must have been because she understood certain fundamental truths about the human condition.
So I started reading it. I frowned at Pride and Prejudice , and Sense and Sensibility [published in 1811] wasn't enough to make me let my guard down.
But reading Northanger Abbey [published posthumously in 1818], a satire on the craze for Gothic novels then rife, and Emma [1816], which tells the story of a young woman suffering from main character syndrome [a syndrome which leads someone, particularly on the
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