I could let the fluff comment fly if you were referring to a woman that had 
written such works in present day, but given that Austen was dealing with a 
completely different world with decidedly different expectations for the 
women in it  I cannot.  The fact that she was able to challenge those limited 
expectations and never allow her heroines to sell themselves short or 
compromise their character should not be taken for granted.  Yes, there is a 
definite romantic bent to her works, but in addition their is amazing insight 
into people, their motives, their struggles and their capacity to surprise 
even themselves.  And in the end, what conquers in her novels is the union of 
two individuals who have the utmost respect and appreciation for each other's 
minds and characters not the unequal and servile relationships that 
constituted the norm for that time.


---------------------- Forwarded by Susan M Scott/HOU/ECT on 05/11/2000 05:23 
PM ---------------------------
From: Benjamin Freeman@ENRON on 05/11/2000 05:16 PM
To: Susan M Scott/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc:  
Subject: Re: How can you not be a fan?  

I can see the attraction of Jane Austen's characters. Their complicated 
characters are intriguing and laughable. Yet I still prefer other genres - 
things that I can more concretely apply to my daily life. It is obvious that 
the same words speak differently for different people. 

And thank you for keeping my literary brain cells alive with your sporadic 
injections of Austen-type-fluff. (Despite the fact that the Little Woodrow's 
nighttime activities are killing other brain cells.)

 



Susan M Scott@ECT
05/11/2000 11:55 AM
To: Benjamin Freeman/Corp/Enron@ENRON
cc:  

Subject: How can you not be a fan?

Today we remember Jane Austen, the British writer born on this date in 1775. 
Austen depreciated herself as a "miniaturist" and a domestic novelist of 
restricted scope, but her literary legacy is large. She was also able to lay 
self-deprecation aside, however, and in Northanger Abbey she declared that 
novels -- her chosen genre -- are works in which "the greatest powers of the 
mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the 
happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and 
humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."(

Austen's work brims with general statements that are contradicted by the 
people in her stories. For instance, Pride and Prejudice opens by noting that 
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a 
good fortune, must be in want of a wife." The book then describes Mrs. 
Bennett, mother of a household full of marriageable daughters as "a woman of 
mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper." As Austen 
acquaints us with the tale of each daughter's engagements, she 
wonders,                    "For what do we live, but to make sport for our 
neighbors and  laugh at them in our turn?"As Austen acquaints us with the 
tale of each daughter's engagements, she wonders, "For what do we live, but 
to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?"