And then I read Jane Eyre and my eyes were opened. It's a bit like Pride and Prejudice-- but cool.
Where Austen's classic characters are charming and easy to identify with--what girl doesn't want to be Elizabeth Bennet, confident and intelligent with a loving family?-- Charlotte Brontë's protagonist is an orphaned girl, scorned by her selfish (rich) adopted family who resents her very existence. Aware of this at an early age, she quickly becomes self-reliant, and after surviving an impoverished existence at a charity school, she carves out a living as a governess, and soon falls in love. Unlike Pride and Prejudice, however, Jane Eyre's titular character deals with a bit more than Elizabeth Bennet--emotional abuse, patriarchy, destitution, death--and love does not equal wedded bliss for Jane. She makes hard choices throughout the story, and faces the consequences of all of her decisions without shying away, whereas Ms. Bennet's major obstacle seems to be her trouble grasping the idea that she may be as proud as the man she's fallen for.
Basically, if this were a fight, I'd bet on Brontë.
