Right, no, I totally understand that. But I think it's hard to appreciate the book in any way without taking that into consideration as you're assessing your reaction to the world of the novel. And I guess as for immersing yourself in the world, well, it wasn't Austen's job to explain her world to people who were living it as if it was an alien planet XD The poor woman probably didn't expect to be remembered at all past her lifetime.

(I find it amusing that I'm defending Austen here; I'm really not that much of a fan, heh. I find her overly bitter and actually fairly heartless in her criticism of people in general. There's no warmth in her sarcasm for me.)

Also--haha, thank you. I try :)