See Jane Austen (and also the Brontë sisters) can be blamed for a lot of later romance literature (whether aimed at YA readers or not), who I felt simply misinterpreted what they were saying.

Wuthering Heights, for example, is not an oh so romantic story of how a damaged man was transformed by the power of love. Heathcliff and Cathy are equally messed up, and their love is destructive of all around them. They're more like Greek gods - remote and inhuman and inhumane - and I think that's what Emily Brontë intended. But this went over the heads of Stephenie Meyer and her ilk.

I think if we stopped interpreting Austen's novels as romance or chick lit, and viewed them as comedy primarily we'd be saved a whole lot of pain...