250 (& More) Reasons We Love Jane Austen
Born on December 16, 1775, Jane Austen turns 250 this year. Help us celebrate!
Everyone has their own reason for adoring Jane Austen, and we would all love to hear yours. Whether it's as simple as "Mrs. Bennet's nerves," a favorite witty line, or a heartfelt toast, we're gathering a joyful collection of 250—and more!—reasons you, her readers and fans, appreciate her. Join us in celebrating the incomparable Jane!
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Sue A Scott Aug 22, 2025, 10:48 AM (2 months ago)
I was quiet, but I was not blind.
---Fanny Price
Hilary Aug 22, 2025, 9:54 AM (2 months ago)
I love Jane Austen because she has such a brilliant way of depicting how the group-think in a room can go from right to wrong, without anyone noticing the change. For example, in Mansfield Park, originally more characters than Fanny question the propriety of putting on the play the "Lover's Vows," but in the end, Edmund agrees to act in it, and somehow even Fanny is roped into rehearsing lines with others! And in Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, both mothers realized after the fact that they long mistrusted the young men who jilted their daughters.
Joanne Cybulski Aug 20, 2025, 2:43 PM (2 months ago)
I have been reading Jane Austen since I found her books in the library in Middle school.
Debra Matheney Aug 20, 2025, 11:08 AM (2 months ago)
Her insights into women's place in society first attracted me to Jane. She understood marriage was just about the only way for women to attain stability, both financially and socially. Her understanding of human psychology adds to the pleasure of reading her. Her satirical wit was the next layer I enjoyed. She is a marvel at portraying local societies: Look at the differences between those of Emma and Mansfield Park, for example. My appreciation of her writing has grown over the years.
Kartiki S. Aug 20, 2025, 7:54 AM (2 months ago)
She is someone I can be while am reading. She is someone who has been just like me when she was alive. Made similar choices. Her books are a live representation of the same.
Laurie Rolland Aug 19, 2025, 7:01 PM (2 months ago)
Jane Austen's incomparable writing has inspired the endlessly fascinating critical discourse that engages and delights me.
Margaret Christmann Aug 19, 2025, 4:19 PM (2 months ago)
I love how Jane Austen understands so well human nature and how it plays out in social situations.
Carol Roberts Aug 19, 2025, 12:18 PM (2 months ago)
Jane Austen saved my life. At the time I first read Northanger Abbey and discovered her clever wit and ability to skewer those of her world with inimitable prose, I was in the midst of a major depression, and it turned out I had other mental health complications to my depressive disorder, including PTSD. I went through three years of trying to find a medication that worked for my depression, trying 27 different meds. I had to go off all meds to go onto the one that finally worked, meaning a deep depression. But I had my online Austenesque friends to help me. I might have succumbed to the automatic thoughts to harm myself otherwise—in that way, Jane Austen surely did save my life. During two events where I was the victim of targeted bullying related to writing and reviewing, my Austenesque friends were of excellent support. Writing and editing Austenesque fiction have become therapy for me over the recent years as well. I continue to gain friends and enjoyment as a life member of JASNA and with a regular presence on social media on Austenesque groups because I adore Jane Austen’s books and the Regency experience. My life is now nearly all Austen, and it helps keep me positive.
Valerie Long Aug 19, 2025, 10:32 AM (2 months ago)
Jane Austen wrote with purpose and alacrity but what I enjoy most about her authorship is her use of the English language and her extensive vocabulary. She was an effusive raconteur! Her characters amuse, confound, and frustrate us. Jane's mellifluous prose enraptures us. My Jane Austen novels are the only books in which I dog-ear pages and make notes on the pages because I find myself concatenating events and ideas. Her characters remain relevant today. It's not only her novels that intrigue me, but the woman herself. The more I learn about her, the more enthralled I am with everything Jane Austen.
Karen Eterovich Aug 19, 2025, 10:22 AM (2 months ago)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that our "Aunt Jane" makes for great theatre. Since 2005, I am grateful for the 20 years of acting work she has provided for me in the form of my one-woman show: Cheer from Chawton; a Jane Austen Family Theatrical which is "the story of her life" in her words. "ONLY a novel? In short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language." Happy 250th Birthday dearest Auntie Jane!
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