United States of (Jane) Austen

When Jane Austen started writing in 1787, she could never have anticipated the crowd of New Yorkers in Lululemon leggings who lined up outside an East Village cinema on a recent evening, awaiting a screening of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. The film, a confection of Austen-lite motifs — clever women, complicated suitors, inevitable reconciliations — wasn’t surprising in its content. But the effect was memorable: it summoned a congregation — a testament to the fact that America has rebranded Austen into a pastel prophet of self-optimization.