Jane Austen as an antidote to today's craziness?

Sometimes things come along into my life and absolutely I can't figure out how it started, but with our recent Jane Austen film festival, I know exactly where it began with a DVD called The Jane Austen Bookclub.

The movie had a good cast and followed five women and one man as they met each month to discuss one of Jane Austen's six books. Through their problems and personalities they each illustrated one of the characters in each of the books.

To be honest I wasn't really a Jane Austen fan until I saw that film. Then I got curious. How much really was in those books? I had seen Pride and Prejudice when it was Sir Lawrence Olivier and Greer Garson but it didn't really impress me all that much. I was far more taken with Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights or Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre. Somehow Mr. Darcy didn't catch my interest until now.

When I began I really hadn't intended to watch that much Jane Austen. I had the A&E version in 1995 starring Colin Firth and from it an addiction grew.

The 1995 version was so compelling that we watched that all in one Sunday. Our plan was to break it up but neither of us wanted to do that once we started. Two 150 minute DVDs of Pride and Prejudice might seem a lot but not with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Frankly he has to be the standard by which any other Mr. Darcy will forever be compared. That scene where he strides up to Pemberley after swimming full clothed in his lake, oh my. The film was just too good to quit part way.

The BBC version was also quite good but not as mesmerizing as the 1995 one. It was probably a week or so later that we watched it over several days. I think I liked its Elizabeth Bennett the best. It also might be the most closely tied to the book. Many of the relationships seemed to me to be more clearly defined. It was, as they all were, very colorful, beautifully photographed, lovely little grace notes.

The 2005 movie, at 129 minutes had the biggest problem with that short of a time. How do you possibly get all of it in? the answer is you cannot which is bound to displease purists. Keira Knightly was a spirited Miss Bennett but really the time worked against it being my favorite version. Besides although its Mr. Darcy was very attractive, he wasn't Colin Firth!

Does that seem like too much Jane Austen? Well it didn't to me and surprisingly Farm Boss was as into it all as I was. We then ordered from Netflix Becoming Jane (supposedly biographical about Jane Austen herself and how she got started writing); Persuasion and have yet to see Mansfield Park but it's coming in a week or so.

During this time, by happenstance on cable, I stumbled across Lost in Austen about a young woman from modern England, a huge fan of the book, being time traveled back to Pride and Prejudice with all the characters except Elizabeth who had come to modern England. It was also several episodes but cable showed them all in a day. Yes, I watched them all.

Have I had enough Jane Austen? Actually not and am now reading the books. Some I never had read. I am not sure why her stories have suddenly been so good for me. I think there might be several reasons. Of course, the plots and characters are great. I mean the love story of Elizabeth and Darcy is a mix of mistaken ideas, duty, and love.

The Austen books all serve to remind me that things can and have been worse culturally. Yes, there was a grace in the England of the early 1800s but the opportunities were far less than we have today. To me, it was a reminder throughout of how few jobs people had, how little chance, particularly for women, to do other than marry appropriately. The last thing we should want to do is revert-- although it's fun for a short period of time.