- Title: The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen
- Compiled by: Dominique Enright
- Year Published: 2002/This Edition: 2005 (Barnes & Noble Books)
- Year Purchased: 2005
- Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
- About: I own nearly two dozen Jane Austen-related books, so it comes as something of a surprise that this is the first one being featured in my P366. I’m not sure how I managed to overlook them for so long but, fear not! They will get their full, fair due in future. I think that this nifty compilation volume is a natural starting point: the great writer is presented at her wittiest and liveliest, with excerpts taken from both her novels and personal correspondence with her sister Cassandra. It’s a truthful approach, as we are not spared the waspishness or vanity of the private woman or, far worse, forced to endure the sugar-coated spinster trope prevalent in so many biographies. Set beside snippets from her fiction, we are given a double-barrel blast of the “real” Jane (so far as such a thing can be accomplished): a powerful, candid wielder of arrow-sharp words and wit, a master of language perfectly controlled and aimed.
- Motivation: Acerbic, perceptive and highly literate, Jane Austen is one of my favourite muses and guiding lights. Shocking, I’m sure.
- Times Read: A few
- Random Excerpt/Page 110: “I do not like the Miss Blackstones; indeed, I was always determined not to like them, so there is the less merit in it.”
- Happiness Scale: 10
Jane Austen, Watercolour and pencil portrait by her sister Cassandra, 1810 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea.
Not just a blog, a philosophy
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 