Guardian columnist Zoe Williams believes Austen's greatest mainstream influence is “the heart wants what it wants idea where a person's true love is more important than his or her social duties. In Jane Austen's own century that actually would have been considered pretty abhorrent. read more
After Shakespeare, Jane Austen is the most widely recognized literary figure today, and in the past thirty years, there has been a seemingly endless stream of TV adaptations, films, books, and events devoted to the English novelist. read more
Even though the context in which Jane Austen's characters lived is entirely different from what we have today, I believe one of the reasons why she's still popular at this age and time is because of her great storytelling and characterization. read more