In today’s day and age it is rare to meet anyone who has not been exposed to Jane Austen in some way. As critic Mary Brennan writes in her article Jane Jane, “Austen has been dead for 179 years, an unfortunate condition which has done her career nothing but good”.

The 21st century’s fascination with one of the 18th and 19th century’s most popular female authors appears strange at first glance – but if one gives the Austen phenomena a second reading, one can get a better understanding of it.

Austen’s popularity is due in large part to her being a great writer. Her novels have stood the test of time due to her ability in taking normal things from everyday life and making them appear completely intriguing and new through her unique use of wit, language, and characterisation.

Ian Freer from film magazine Empire insists that Austen’s novels are “beautifully constructed stories of heartbreak and happiness […] they also come with a set of social restrictions that can be translated into any environment”.

It is perhaps this literary concoction that made her possibly the chief creator of the modern novel but it is also this same mix that has iconised her, as Jack Kroll writes, a “progenitor of the soap opera”.

Indeed, although we’d all like to attest that she is in our beautiful oak bookcases, the screen has been one of the major ways in which Austen has entered our homes. Her works have inspired some of the most popular books and movies today, including Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Helen Fielding’s two Bridget Jones novels show just how easily one can take Austen’s world and reimagine it to one almost everyone can relate to.

The hit film mirrors Pride and Prejudice in almost all aspects: be it Mark Darcy and Bridget’s (Renee Zellweger) relationship to that of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy (yes, they actually share the last name), the couples’ first bad impressions, George Wickham and Daniel Cleaver being scoundrels and Darcy’s turning point, to mention a few.

The parallel also continues with the casting of Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, the same actor who played Austen’s Darcy in the TV mini-series, thus further making the link obvious even to the casual observer.

Similarly, the popular TV show Clueless, which is based on a film of the same name, is surprisingly faithful to Austen’s Emma. The two stories are so alike that they share the same protagonist. Emma is well regarded by her family and her community, with manipulation as her major weakness. She is also wealthy and lives with her indulgent father after her mother dies, much to the likeness of the show’s main character, Cher.

These are just a few examples of the ways Austen has been present in our lives, many of the times without us even noticing.

Perhaps our fascination with Austen comes from our somewhat basic human desire for a so-called ‘happy ending’ or it could be because she represents the ordinary people who are not idyllically beautiful or handsome and who, much like us, attempt to challenge their societies and are plagued with personal demons.

Regardless of why we still enjoy Austen today, her following is greater than ever with people all over the world commemorating 200 years since her death. The Mysterious Miss Austen, Jane and her Alton Apothecary, The Jane Austen Story and Jane Austen in 41 Objects, are only a few of the many exhibitions taking place in an attempt to reveal who she was to the world. However, in trying to showcase who she was as a person, most people are forgetting that the only way one can truly capture Austen’s essence is through her work.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

Perhaps the best way to honour the infamous writer is by cracking open our probably untouched classics and indulge in her world, a world that will prove to be very similar to the one we live now.