Ol' Jane comes in for a bit of stick, these days, what with pre-feminist theory and post-modern analysis: she's been seized by the acadmeics on one hand, and the romance-seeks on the other. So people tend to presume she has little to offer the non-specialist late twentieth century reader in terms of identification and insight. Well, au contraire, as they say down my local wine-bar! Ms Austen is a bitingly acerbic social commentator: few escape her acid observations - good characters and villains alike. Okay, so her world is small, but hey - so is Jackie Collins', Toni Morrisons's or any dozen other contemporary novelists' milieu. We all write what we know and, in a greater sense, if the writing is up to it, communicate on a level far deeper and more globally profound than the mere contrivancies of the plot and setting. I know it'sa early nineteen century England but, hey, do people change that much over time and space? I think not; the human condition is universal and tediously constant. From strong Emma in the eponymous novel, to quietly sardonic Anne in Persuasion and on through the entire Bennett family, Austen's characters transcend their era and make me laugh, cry and giggle at thjeir wit and observations. So the next time you go to turn your nose up at Austen as either too highbrow, too romancy or just too dasn out of date, give the lady a second chance, eh pal? Nearly two hundred years on and she can still write the pants off most twentieth century novelists.