The Popularity of Jane Austen

Remember the movie The Jane Austen Book Club? Soon all the members were asking: "What would Jane do?" as they tried to untangle their own love lives.  Austen'a book fans really got into the characters in novels like Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. Why are readers still attracted to Austen's books more than 150 years after their creation?I think it is because Jane's characters are cerebral as well as emotional. While the heroines sometimes fall for rogues, they soon learn that men of character who are capable of true commitment and self-sacrifice are more trustworthy and in the end, much more romantic. With depth of feeling below calm surfaces they are much stronger heroines than the charming, flirtatious handsome men who are mostly in love with themselves. What a lesson we would all love for our daughter, granddaughters, young nieces and friends to learn in this age where "love affairs" are fleeting and many times devoid of any lasting attachment.