Google Doodle to Jane Austen: Happy 235th Birthday

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The Jane Austen Google Doodle

Google.co.uk

Dec. 16 marks the 235th birthday for Jane Austen, the legendary English author from the 19th century. And as a tribute, Google have made her her own Doodle. It sure beats a cake and all those candles.

The author might have passed away in 1817 but that hasn’t stopped Google from creating a Mr Darcy with Elizabeth Bennett-esque Doodle in celebration of her legacy. This fall Google also celebrated in similar style the birthdays of the literary greats Robert Louis Stevenson (160 on Nov. 13) and Agatha Christie (a sprightly 120 on Sept. 15).

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Austen is often considered a Romantic (with a capital ‘R’-as in the movement) writer along with the likes of William Wordsworth and Mary Shelley. Her novels include Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion and Emma and she has arguably had more TV and film adaptations of her work than any other writer (bar a certain William Shakespeare). Pride and Prejudice, who’s protagonist Elizabeth Bennett has been portrayed by Jennifer Ehle and Keira Knightley in the two most popular adaptations of the novel, was even voted by Austen’s fellow Brits as the nation’s favorite book in 2007 and served as the inspiration for Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel, Bridget Jones’s Diary.

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NewsFeed feels that Austen would have firmly been behind Google’s latest doodle. As she herself once wrote, “A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” Google would surely approve.