‘She’s such a modern person. She feels like one of us – that’s why we love her’
Examining the world in which Austen lived, historian Lucy Worsley discovered how Jane fought for her freedom
When you read Jane Austen’s novels, you think they are about romance and finding a man – but equally important to all of the heroines is finding a home. None of them is able to go out and get a job – that would be socially inappropriate and they felt they couldn’t do that. What a terrible position to be in!
But the novels aren’t saying that these women think they have to marry for money. Jane Austen herself never did. She could have done, but she took a massive risk and made her way in the world as a writer. She is such a modern person. It’s one of the reasons why we love her so much; she feels like one of us. It’s hard to write a biography of Austen because she was so private and elusive. What I have done in my new book, Jane Austen At Home, is try to pin her down through the houses she lived in. She didn’t have a lot of choice about where or how to live because she was economically dependent on other people. I think she had quite a difficult life.
My favourite character is Emma, which is a controversial choice because some people find her annoying. She is what Donald Trump would call a ‘nasty woman’! She’s very full of herself and very confident, but in the end she realises that she is wrong and she learns. I really like the way she humbles herself during the course of the story. There’s lots to admire in somebody who is accomplished, intelligent and very slightly difficult.
With Austen there is so much pleasure in the re-reading. If you become a true Jane-ite you read the books again and again, and see new things every time. She’s like Shakespeare in that way, and is endlessly interpretable.
My favourite is Emma – what Trump would call a ‘nasty woman’!