Happy birthday, Jane!

These past few days, the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth has been celebrated worldwide, while her works—in book, film, or series format—continue to enjoy undeniable success. In our country, this celebration has been led, as one would expect, by the Club VictoriaThe Vienna Circle collection brings together some of the best classic English novels, including, of course, those of Jane Austen.

Even now, when discussing this important figure in English literature, a kind of struggle persists between the image projected by her family, which there has been interest in maintaining ever since—that of a miraculously gifted young spinster who wrote romantic stories while darning socks—and the ambitious one, who wanted to be read and earn money and independence through her work. The biography published by her nephew in 1869 also insists on portraying Austen as a sweet woman with no interest in politics or social criticism.

But one only needs to read her to know that Jane Austen had every interest in portraying the world she lived in and in highlighting certain injustices and inequalities, especially regarding the role of women. Her literature is a consistent critique of the classist and patriarchal society that surrounded her, although she didn't openly criticize it but rather through irony and her characters.

It's undeniable that Jane Austen's popularity has reached unprecedented levels thanks to audiovisual products: films and series, often mislabeled as "cupboard" movies, that try to turn a quality literary work into a brand. This is the danger inherent in commercial success.

However, there will surely be young people who have become curious about Jane Austen's books thanks to this "brand." If so, if they have gone looking for Sense and Sensibility either Emma And if they have read her, it will have been worthwhile. Perhaps by reading her they will grasp the feminist ideas hidden in her texts and, with Rosalía's permission, choose to openly join the cause that defends equality for women.

In this sense, the disappearance of a large amount of the author's private correspondence is a great shame. Her beloved sister Cassandra destroyed the letters that, apparently, could have "tarnished" the image the family wanted to project of Jane. Oh, Cassandra, we forgive you because it was an act done out of love, but... It is a great pity not to have been able to know what Jane Austen thought about so many things!

Would she like the idealized Mr. Darcy that cinema has created? Would she participate in the events that the city of Bath (which it is not at all clear she loved) often dedicates to her? Who would convince her most: Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet as the Dashwood sisters, or Anne Hathaway playing herself?

And, since we're nearing Christmas, how would Jane react if, at the family Christmas dinner table, someone asked her the impertinent question: "So, you still don't have a partner, Jane?"