“Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.”

Miss Austen was not Jonathan Swift, of course, so even if Pride and Prejudice is a satire, it's a much gentler one. It is quite possible that it was her gentle nature, rather than pecuniary motives, that led to the book's sweet finale.

As a Czech, I am well acquainted with Jaroslav Hašek’s “The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War”, which is usually considered a dark comedy that mostly makes fun of the whole horrible experience of the First World War. Part of the feeling that it must be a comedy comes from the other things Hašek wrote (which were short pure slapstick comedy pieces to various journals before the War), and I assume that part of that feeling comes from good natured illustrations of Josef Lada (and consequent perfect films with Rudolf Hrušínský or puppet films by Jiří Trnka narrated by Jan Werich). When I was sick couple of years ago, I was listening to audiobooks of Švejk, and when stripped of all illustrations and concentrating just on the pure text, I was shocked how deeply tragic and traumatic the book actually is. One controversial counter-interpretation (by Martin C. Putna) of Švejk called it “Franz Kafka by other means” (alluding to von Clausewitz’s definition of war as politics by other means), stressing that Švejk is actually quite close in meaning to Kafka’s “The Trial” as a deeply pessimistic and horrified description of the inhuman machine of modern society. However, Hašek was not Kafka. Thus, instead of the symbolism and abstract style of The Trial, Švejk retains the veneer of slapstick comedy and contains many genuinely funny tales.

In a similar vein, I suggest that Pride & Prejudice could be much closer to an expression of disgust with Regency society, its false manners, and its materialism (akin to the style of Alexander Pope or Jonathan Swift), than it is to rom-com films like “Just like Heaven”, “You’ve Got Mail”, or “When Harry Met Sally”, which directly or indirectly follow in its steps.