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Jane Austen: Inventor of Chick Lit 7526 Views
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Description:
Jane Austen wrote about fancy flirtations and picture-perfect proposals. We're guessing she wouldn't be a huge Fifty Shades of Grey fan. Publicly, at least.
Transcript
- 00:04
Jane Austen: Inventor of Chick Lit, a la Shmoop.
- 00:09
Speaker 1: Ooh, Pride and Prejudice. I love that book. So steamy.
- 00:16
What’s hotter than two people realizing that their hate for each other was really…
- 00:22
love?
- 00:23
Better than any chick lit nowadays.
Full Transcript
- 00:25
Speaker 2: Hey… you think Jane Austen invented chick lit?
- 00:29
Speaker 1: Uh… yeah. She was like the Danielle Steel of her time. But… good.
- 00:38
Ok, I know, for most of the book, Lizzy and Darcy are passive-aggressively insulting each
- 00:44
other.
- 00:48
But in the end, a poor girl marries a man rich enough to be a prince – not for money,
- 00:54
but because they both secretly really, really like each other!
- 00:58
Love conquers all.
- 01:00
<<Over-the-top romantic sigh>>
- 01:02
Speaker 2: Um, are we reading the same book?
- 01:08
Lizzy and Darcy marry because they rationally decide that they’re suited to be companions
- 01:12
for one another.
- 01:13
Plus, they aren’t from different classes – he’s a gentleman and she’s a gentleman’s
- 01:19
daughter.
- 01:19
Love didn’t “conquer” anything. Lizzy and Darcy hated each other until they realized
- 01:23
that they were so similar that they should love each other.
- 01:26
It’s not chick lit at all. Chick lit is about irrational desires, uncontrollable passion…
- 01:33
and poorly-developed characters. Speaker 1: Pride and Prejudice not chick lit?
- 01:39
How can you take all the emotion out of it like that, you robot?
- 01:42
Speaker 2: How can you be such a deluded, hopeless romantic?
- 01:45
<<Third, narrator voice>> Well, it seems there’s a difference of opinion
- 01:48
when it comes to the works of Ms. Austen.
- 01:50
What do you think?
- 01:51
Does all her characters’… lovey-doviness make Austen the first chick lit author?
- 01:58
Or do the serious undertones make her novels… something more than that?
- 02:03
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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