Moot point
Sue Hutchison of Mercury News wonders
how Jane Austen would define her books if she were writing them today. Would her publisher’s marketing department insist that “Sense and Sensibility” be retitled “Elinor Dashwood’s Diary?”
While we agree with the basic thrust of the article, that chick lit is a broad term that includes books of all quality levels (though we found The Nanny Diaries overhyped, tiresome and immature), we have said before and still think that, despite claims by authors in various genres, were Jane Austen publishing her books today, they would not be considered genre works such as romance novels or chick lit. Most likely they would be considered mainstream commercial books. Oprah might even have been persuaded to feature one…maybe Persuasion, if one spun it to revolve around Louisa’s fall and recovery or Anne and Wentworth’s long separation and joyous reunion. (”Did you find it anticlimatic, audience? Didn’t you want them to just KISS already? Right there in the middle of Cheap-street?”)
