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Notes -
Well, a superficial reader who only sees things through a modern lens, sure. But I could similarly recast the story of Les Miserables, Great Expectations, or Madame Bovary with shallow chick-lit themes. This is why actually reading and understanding literature is important, and it's hardly fair to blame Jane Austen for inspiring chick-flicks loosely based on her novels.
I think a lot of people do still read the old classics and "get" what the actual point was, but this is incidentally why I disagree with the popular sentiment that high school English classes are terrible and kill love of reading by making teenagers read old books they may not necessarily enjoy. Not all books are supposed to be "easy" or "fun."
(Though I maintain that Dickens and Austen are actually enjoyable reads; I liked Dickens even in high school. Madame Bovary, on the other hand, was not a book I think any teenager can really relate to. I found it horribly boring in high school, and reread it as an adult and appreciated it much more.)
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