Jane Austen's books remain popular today.  Canadian author, Margaret Laurence, made the following observations in the 80s* ~

"Jane Austen, the more I read her and think about her, was such a subtle and strong feminist!  In them days!  But those days, apparently so far back, are not so very different from our own.  Is this not always the way?  I think so.  Strong women did always have the difficulties that Austen presents, and people like you and I have lived through that, too.  With, I may say, totable [sic] success.  We pass on a whole lot of things to the children, both female and male, or so I hope and pray and know. . ."

"How alike women writers are, or so it seems to me. . . we are sensible, amidst everything else, aren't we?  I think Jane Austen would have loved us, but I suspect she might have been a bit in awe of us, as well she might, we who have coped with having and rearing our children, writing our books, earning our livings, and not hiding the manuscripts under the desk blotter when the vicar came to tea."

~ A Very Large Soul  Selected Letters from Margaret Laurence to Canadian Writers.  J. A. WAINWRIGHT, Cormorant Books, 1995
* letters to Marian Engel
English novelist Jane Austen (1775 - 1817)