Jane in Love: Sometimes a Predictable Ending is All We Need

Known worldwide for works such as Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Persuasion (1816), Jane Austen was responsible for creating unattainable goals when it comes to love. In the world of literature and film adaptations, many lovers have sighed and dreamed of finding a Mr. Darcy to call their own.

Despite writing and creating enchanting love stories, Austen, in turn, never experienced the longed-for and fantasy love that she put into practice in her works. And this is the starting point of the book “Jane in Love” authored by Rachel Givney, published in May 2022.

In 1803, Jane Austen feels all the pressure of society on her shoulders. For all the residents of Bath, England, it is absurd that she is almost 30 years old and has not found a husband yet. Her mother forbade her from writing her stories, and she also constantly insists that she cannot be smarter than her suitor. No man wants a know-it-all.

After 7 long months without a suitor, a young man finally visits her, filling her with hope, but it doesn’t take long for the news of his engagement to another woman to arrive, taking all her faith with it. Because of this disappointment, through a recommendation from third parties, Jane meets a matchmaker who confides in her that the love she is looking for is not there and she will need to travel to find it.

And it is through this trip that Austen ends up in 2020, on a film set where an adaptation of one of her books is being filmed, and meets Sofia and Fred.

Is this worth reading?

The book’s language is complicated at the beginning and becomes simpler as the chapters go on. This may be to keep up with the pace of writing at the time the scenes are set, with a sophisticated language in 1803 and simpler in 2020.

This really helps to keep the reading pace steady, without too many complications or the need to run to the dictionary every time a new word appears.

As for the story itself, it is exactly what we expect from it. When reading the book’s synopsis, we don’t need much to guess the ending. Torn between love and her career, it is easy to deduce what Jane Austen will choose.

However, the way the development between Jane and Fred is delivered, as well as Jane’s friendship with Sofia is described, is rushed in a way that could have been contained. The impression you get is that, despite having 392 pages, everything happened too quickly.

Jane falls in love with Fred, everything is mutual and beautiful, but at the same time, so quickly that it is difficult to identify what caused such love. Furthermore, the author tries to portray the relationship between the two as enemies to lovers at various times, but what could be beautiful and exciting gives us the feeling that it was just thrown in there just to be something (and it wasn’t).

And that’s why I say that predictability is sometimes necessary. If the book had ended differently, it would be hard to defend Jane Austen’s choices or even see any sense in them.

I won’t lie that, despite not being a very impactful book, it caught me off guard and at a sensitive moment. Even with all the complaints above, I shed a few tears in the final pages.

“Jane in Love” is one of those books that would be perfect if adapted for an afternoon session. And, in my opinion, that’s not a problem, because once they find their target audience, these works can consolidate themselves and go far.