Great novels do not need a backdrop of emotional disaster – four families in a village will do the trick
"People love Jane Austen even though those books are absurd to us because we like the clarity of it; we can see very clearly what Elizabeth Bennet has to overcome, what she has to deal with.” So said a great writer this week and – as Austen herself would always graciously defer to an elder brother, so shall I – he was, of course, correct. Nick Hornby went on to say: “In this century, where actually well-heeled people can do whatever the hell they want whenever they want, it’s more chaotic to extract a narrative.”
That’s why he now enjoys writing period pieces, and believes that we, the audience, find stories from the past so satisfying.
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