06 Dec Jane Austen’s Letters: Wit and Wisdom
Jane Austen was a prolific letter writer, devastatingly for us, her family with no foresight to the future fame of their sister, burned a large part of her letters. So much history lost. But still, such is the love of Austen that over the centuries all the small pieces of her life that we have to hand have been painstakingly recorded and celebrated.
A few months ago I started reading more about her letters. Having read (and reread) all Jane Austen’s novels so many times I needed new material! And while I was aware of her clever wit, I didn’t realise just how good it was until I started delving into her letters.
The wit and wisdom of Austen is the first in a series of pencil sets (and other new exciting products) that I will be creating using her letters.
The wit and wisdom quotes
Here are the first five quotes from Austen’s letters that I have chosen for this new range of literary pencils. When picking the quotes I chose the five quotes that I felt best represented the dry humour and witty letter writing of Jane Austen.
I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life – Jane Austen letter to James Stanier Clarke
I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal – Jane Austen letter to Cassandra
Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend – Jane Austen letter to her niece Fanny Knight
You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve – Jane Austen letter to Cassandra
Expect a most agreeable letter; for not being overburdened with subject (having nothing at all to say) I shall have no check to my Genius from beginning to end. – Letter to Cassandra
Future Jane Austen Reading
I have also started to get recommendations for more Austen biographies to read. If you have any recommendations please do send them my way!
Currently on my to read list are:
Matters of Fact in Jane Austen by Janine Barchas
Jane Austen: A life by Claire Tomalin
The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley
Jane Austen in Context by Janet Todd