Rediscovering Jane

Since I have not yet been able to locate a single book in the public library (and thus have not even begun my reading list), I chose a selection from my prized "Works of Jane Austen In Ten Volumes" to go with me to the laundromat yesterday. I am remembering why I like her so much, and not because of Keira Knightly and Mr. Dreamboat making out in the rain. The movies are good, but it is in the books that you see Austen's understanding of and uncanny ability to portray human nature. In my opinion the best kind of literature makes me think I am not reading about myself, and then proves otherwise by illustrating what the Duchess once said in class, that "people have always been the same. Always."

I leave you today with a passage which I found amusing and personally relevant:

Every morning now brought its regular duties -- shops were to be visited; some new part of the town to be looked at; and the pump-room to be attended, where they paraded up and down for an hour, looking at everybody and speaking to no one. The wish of a numerous acquaintance in Bath was still uppermost with Mrs. Allen, and she repeated it after every fresh proof, which every morning brought, of her knowing nobody at all.  -Northanger Abbey, Chapter 3