Specifically Spec Fic

I stumbled across this London TIMES article while looking for something totally different.

I have to say, I was a tad peeved at this woman writer. To me, Jane Austen personifies the school of thought that says relationships between people are in and of themselves interesting. And this woman (Celia Brayfield, British novelist/non-fiction writer) seems to hold it against Jane Austen that she didn't include any of the great events of her day in her books. Brayfield seems, in fact, to suggest that JA's work is holding back other women writers because people expect them to write in the Austen mold. Well, I checked Amazon.com and Celia Brayfield has written a fair number of books, including one on how to write a bestseller, so how much can a woman dead over 100 years be holding her back?

Live and let live. To each his own. Jane Austen did what she did better than almost anyone else. Let her rest in peace. And let me curl up with my copy of PRIDE & PREDJUDICE.