ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Author Videos 248 videos
We may all be fools when it comes to love, but thankfully none of us will accidentally switch places with our twin brother and fall in love with ou...
Books become classics because they either reflect on or influence the world around us. As was the casewith Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Of...
Jane Austen: Inventor of Chick Lit 7528 Views
Share It!
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.
Related Videos
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...
