Jane Austen Bangs Are Trending (& the Book Girlies Have *Thoughts*)

Jane Austen Bangs Are Trending (& the Book Girlies Have *Thoughts*)

In life, I am a devoted student of two things: Jane Austen and beauty culture. Recently, the two collided rather spectacularly with the explosion of “Jane Austen bangs” circulating on TikTok. It coincides with the 20th anniversary re-release of Pride & Prejudice, English director Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of what is largely considered Austen’s most popular work. (I recently went to see the movie with my book club, and some die-hard acolytes s…

Jane Austen's name did not appear in her books while she was alive, but in recent decades it has been used as a claim in countless audiovisual products based not only on her novels, but also on the very life of the author and those who surrounded her, or the influence of her work on readers. Almost 250 years after her birth (the anniversary is, to be precise, December 17), the novelist of the Regency period and her romantic but subtly ironic plo…