I just thought she was common knowledge

So on Monday, we were doing small talk in my office about our weekends. One of my coworkers, a man in his early twenties, talked about watching a movie with his girlfriend called Pride and Prejudice. I was surprised that he’d never heard of the title. I asked if he knew it was based on a book? He did not. I asked if he recognized the name Jane Austen? He did not. When I was clearly surprised, he claimed that it’s not mainstream knowledge, while I alleged it was just as common as knowing who Dickens or Poe is. This lead to a game of quizzing our coworkers “what is Jane Austen known for?”

The thing is, I work in an almost entirely male office. And of the dozen or so we bothered with the quiz, only 2 knew who she was and could name one of her titles. Another 2 recalled that she was a writer, but did not know what she wrote (one guessed Jane Eyre, the other thought she was “the one who did mysteries”, I assume referencing Christie). The rest had absolutely no idea. Of those who did not know the name, I asked “have you heard of pride and prejudice?” And to a man, they had no recognition.

I am a USAmerican, and assumed that she was an author students usually are exposed to at some point in high school English class, if not just through pop culture. This cultural blind spot among my male colleagues was wild to me.