Jane Austen on "chick lit"

I wonder what Jane Austen might have said on the subject of chick lit.

I myself have a vague notion of the genre. I understand the term to refer to women's literature with the focus not on the domestic but on the professional and romantic lives of young contemporary, and usually urban, women. I believe Jane Austen would have approved of the subject matter. However, I imagine she might have found the phrase "chick lit" denigrating and condescending. On the other hand, she grew up in the nineteenth century. She was accustomed to such a tone being taken, particularly towards women and particularly towards women's fiction.

No doubt she'd laugh in the face of such a pathetic attempt to put down women's writing.

I recently finished two novels, one of which is definitely "chick lit" – just ask the hundreds of reviewers over at Amazon – and the other has been classified as romantic comedy, young adult fiction, chick lit (again, just check out Amazon) and even paranormal. (Kudos to Amanda Ashby for straddling the spectrum of literary genres and for writing a funny, engaging and refreshing novel.) Both are coming-of-age tales along the lines of the bildungsroman. Both protagonists are young, chic, vain, and morally if not psychologically immature. Through the course of the tale they learn to see the world through the eyes of others and in so doing change for the better. They're even rewarded for their transformations with love and romance.

Take Darcy Rhone in Emily Giffin's Something Blue. She's conceited, selfish to the point of narcissistic, and occasionally paranoid and delusional (when she imagines others are out to get her, for instance, for why else would they completely ignore her?). A literary agent told me once that one of the toughest protagonists to write is the unsympathetic type. Giffin does wonders with Darcy, whom we all loved to hate in Giffin's first novel, Something Borrowed. It takes a life-changing event to wake up dear Darcy, and she's not a quick study; gradually she comes to learn who her true friends are and that she owes the world far more than a pretty face. The journey is captivating and the conclusion wholly satisfying.

The heroine of Amanda Ashby's You Had Me at Halo appears, in the opening pages of the novel, to have lost her chance at grasping the meaning of life. She is dead; in fact, sitting in heaven watching her own funeral. But Holly Evans is not about to give up. When granted the chance to return to earth for forty-eight hours to make peace with her life, she doesn't ask questions, nor waste time studying the rule book. Even when she finds herself in someone else's body, and quickly discovers that the dear departed has not yet vacated the premises, she doesn't balk. She enlists the aid of computer geek Vince Murphy, whom she barely noticed while alive, and begins to see the world and people through his eyes.

Readers will relish Darcy's comeuppance as well as her triumphs, not to mention the romp through London. They'll also laugh themselves silly as the geek and the dead chick battle for control of his body, their lives, and their relationship.

If this is chick lit, bring it on. Miss Austen would definitely have approved.