Edward and Bella at the River's Edge
Several of us are planning to see Twilight when the movie comes out at the end of November, and we’ve made a pact to read the books before that event. Imagine my delight and surprise when I came across this passage. Bella, wanting to take her mind off Edward Cullen, picks up a tattered volume of the complete works of Jane Austen:
I lay on my stomach, crossing my ankles in the air, flipping through the different novels in the book, trying to decide which would occupy my mind most thoroughly. My favorites were Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. I’d read the first most recently, so I started into Sense and Sensibility, only to remember after I began chapter three that the hero of the story happened to be named Edward. Angrily, I turned to Mansfield Park, but the hero of that piece was named Edmund, and that was just too close. Weren’t there any other names available in the late eighteenth century?
Indeed there were, Bella, and you might have kept going and started reading Emma. Knowing how popular these vampire books are, I am glad that Stephenie Meyer wrote about a seventeen-year-old freely choosing to read Jane Austen’s books. Here’s the trailer for the film:
and here’s the link to the official website.
Jane Austen's World 
I know excatly what do you mean. I was so happy when I read this part!
And in Midnight Sun (Twilight by the eyes of Edward) he also comments on Jane’s part:
‘Ah – more classics. She was an Austen fan.’
So perfect!!
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you for this post!!! I am a ‘Nana,’ whose 2 Granddaughters and 2 Daughters-in-law and I, have read the Twilight series. ‘Nana’ and Grands were first on this. The others have followed. And we will be at the first showing!!!
Yes, Bella is a knowledgeable teen, not a flighty one. Not a typical only-interested-in-fashion one. :-) Sort of an every-woman for teens. Happily she reads!
I very much hope you and your friends enjoy the series. And that you and your friends will have fun at the film.
Please go the first weekend it is released. For Hollywood, the number of tickets sold, on the _first weekend_ is the be-all and end-all. Silly but… it’s so. So naturally, we who love Twilight, are in hopes that many, many people go to the film the _first_ weekend. :-)
Gentle hugs,
Miss Mari-Nanci
Jane Austen made me read Twilight! She really did. Somehow there was a link to this vampire book when I surfed on amazon, looking for Jane Austen novels.
I’m glad that Stephenie is such a great fan of Jane Austen’s books. She got inspired by her from the start.
It may be self-evident that the unapproachable Edward is linked to Mr. Darcy, isn’t it?
twilight rocks… period.
The references to Jane Austen convinced me to read the Twilight Saga! I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice for an English course in college, and last Spring semester I read Sense and Sensibility, so I could see the similarities even before I realized that Stephenie Meyer had intended them. Expect more references to couples in the following novels. When you get around to reading Eclipse, take a gander at the bottom paragraph on page 28! It just made me so entirely happy!!!
i love this show its awsome if i had to i would watch it everyday its in awsome show its like the best movie ever
True, Bella is not dumb, but she always needs Edward’s help – physically she is very weak. I doubt Jane would approve…I much prefer Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy to Bella and Edward.
Thank you Kate! Yes this book may be based on Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorite books, but a true fan would be dissapointed in this book. Bella would have fallen into one of those characters that Elizabeth Bennet would have mocked. Pride and Prejudice was a story about romance despite a strong female character that defies the constraints of society. So she reads classics, and doesn’t shop. She’s weak, and here’s where I will stray from Kate, she’s dumb. Sure she has book smarts, and likes to read; but there’s so much more to life than that if you want to be a viable part of society. Bella is socially akward, clumsy to the extent of being a constant danger to herself, unable to comprehend the simplest of conversation cues (how many times was she near tears in a juvenile “He doesn’t like me!” When the guy just said It’s not safe for you to be with me, I want you to be safe. And he really had to explain to her AGAIN what he said, as if he really did say “I can’t stand you”), we all have our weaknesses, but come one, she has them all! She’s a character who literally cannot live without depending upon this man to watch her every move and guide her through life. That’s not Jane Austin, that’s the backwards thinking Jane Austin was trying to fight. Or have I given her too much credit over the years.
[…] a widely known detail of the Twilight saga that Bella is a huge Jane Austen fan, as any boring, self-loathing individual with terrible taste in everything ought to be, and in […]
Having just come across this, I did want to add that Stephenie Meyer actually named Edward after Edward in Sense and Sensibility. I can’t remember where I read this, but I am almost sure :-). And I love the reference to Anne of Green Gables in Eclipse :-). Happy reading all!