She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow, I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part...

For it was a truth universally acknowledged that a single vicar must be in want of a wife.

You either choose this method of passing the evening because you are in each other’s confidence, and have secret affairs to discuss, or because you are conscious that your figures appear to the greatest advantage...

No poseo el talento de otros que pueden conversar con facilidad con quienes nunca han visto. No tengo valor para ello ni puedo adaptarme al carácter de los demás con la facilidad que otros lo...

Lady Catherine quoting Lizzie Bennet:She had the impudence to reply that, whilst these would be heavy misfortunes, your wife must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon...

Jane Austen’s narrative style seems to me to show (especially in the later novels) a curiously chameleon-like faculty; it varies in colour as the habits of expression of the several characters impress themselves on the...

Ah yes.’ Peter’s tone was scornful. ‘And they must always be paid before the poor tradesmen’s bills, mustn’t they?”They must indeed. They are debts of honour.”Oh, Mary.’ He leant over and kissed me quickly. ‘What...

Vimes thought for a moment and said, ‘Well, dear, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a man with a lot of wood must be in want of a wife who can handle a great...

The visible structure of Jane Austen’s stories may be flimsy enough; but their foundations drive deep down into the basic principles of human conduct. On her bit of ivory she has engraved a criticism of...

Her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating. For many years of her life she had had two sons; but the crime and annihilation of Edward a few weeks ago, had robbed her of one;...

…the more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.

Every thing he did was right. Every thing he said was clever. If their evenings at the park included cards, he cheated himself and all the rest of the party to get her a good...

I always liked ‘nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.’ I think that’s the perfect Eliot quote for the moment we head off to a garden party.

To me [Edgar Allen Poe’s] prose is unreadable—like Jane Austin’s [sic]. No there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane’s. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity...

I will probably die a misunderstood virgin like Ophelia in HAMLET, only I won’t do it by floating down a stream, singing my own mad song. They’ll just find me here, on my bed, on...

I don’t need to see the trail to know you’re at the end of it. My grandfather’s compass may not work, but mine is still true.

I will only add, God bless you.

It raises my spleen more than anything.

She is probably by this time as tired of me, as I am of her; but as she is too Polite and I am too civil to say so, our letters are still as frequent...

Jane Austen would be so proud. Another girl trussed up for a fancy party.””On the contrary, she’d be horrified. All that skin. You’d need about another five yards of material.

I lost the letter in rather embarrassing circumstances. We were to dine at Parramatta Government House that same evening, and Peter had come in early from harvesting the wheat, sitting down in all his dirt...

If Mr. [V.S.] Naipaul takes no pleasure in the happy delineation of the varieties of human nature, then he must be intolerably stupid.

She was opinionated without being pushy. When choosing a book to read aloud, she would try to interest him in those spunky English heroines she liked so much. He proposed Thucydides, but he understood how...

No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.

Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.

She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.

Tonight, however, Dickens struck him in a different light. Beneath the author’s sentimental pity for the weak and helpless, he could discern a revolting pleasure in cruelty and suffering, while the grotesque figures of the...

Few novelists can be more scrupulous than Jane Austen as to the phrasing of the thoughts of their characters.

This made my father laugh. ‘Mary made a cake, did she? Well, well. Better that than she should make a cake for herself, I suppose.’Peter then burst out: ‘Why must you always be making a...

Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else’s eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles.