A new-fangled version 'Eligible' tries hard but Brand Jane Austen can only be stretched this far
Austenhead, Austenite, or Austener—I don’t know if Jane Austen groupies have a name but here are three for your consideration. Whatever you choose, I am it.
It’s been 30 years since I read my first Austen. I was just about 13 and, obviously, I started with Pride and Prejudice (P&P). I’ve probably read it 30 times since. My other favourite, which I only got to a few years later, when I was admittedly better equipped to appreciate it, is Emma (which turned 200 this year to P&P’s 203). Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey followed in quick succession. And, unusually, Sense and Sensibility, up there with P&P for many, made it last to my Austen reading list.
Then, a few years ago, I started to branch out my Austen fixation through multi-media outlets. I began by scouring the net to discover every filmed version of her books. Then those television shows and movies were binge-watched—when nothing was left, there was always Colin Firth. My preoccupation also found recourse in fan fiction—you can only call it that; sequels, retellings, offshoots were bought. I then recalled how back home in India too, a delightful little Doordarshan show called Trishna in the late ’80s had done some justice to the Bennett-Darcy saga. I looked for it online, but to no avail.
In short, after chancing upon a plethora of variants in a few weeks, I learnt that Austen’s most beloved story was not hers to tell alone. Pride and Prejudice belonged to all of us, and we were allowed to walk the characters wherever we chose.