It's been 200 years since Pride and Prejudice was first published, and I can't let it go by without comment. I freely admit to being a huge Austen fan; she's one fantastic novelist, and Persuasion is my all-time favorite novel.
Years ago, when I'd worked through all of Austen, I decided to try reading some of the works that inspired her. This wasn't a very scientific endeavor (I started with books that are referenced in Northanger Abbey), but it was very interesting. The BBC recently posted a list of some of the novels that were popular at the time Austen was writing. Looking back I can see that I actually read a fair number of the listed works.
If all you ever read from the turn of the 19th century is Austen, you end up with a very different picture of that world than if you read more broadly. I can't say that any of the other authors have the gift of writing novels the way Austen does, but they certainly portray a wilder world. Burney, Edgeworth, and Lennox are packed with duels, cross-dressing, kidnapping, suicide, and monkey attacks. Yes, monkey attacks. And that list doesn't even include The Monk!
While Austen's work is truly wonderful, it can feel a bit sanitized. The gothic novels and picaresques of the 18th century certainly aren't any more realistic than Austen's work, but when all are read together it's easier to remember that the world wasn't actually a simpler, safer place back then. It just had less plumbing and a more complicated syntax.
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