Quotes about Austen

Jane Austen makes me detest all her characters, without reserve. Is that her intention? It is not believable. Then is it her purpose to make the reader detest her characters up to the middle of the book and like them in the rest of the chapters? That could be. That would be high art. It would be worthwhile, too. Some day I might examine the other end of her books and see.

Austen knew that our biggest hopes sometimes rest on the smallest events, and that tragedy can be played out not just on a national stage or a foreign battlefield but also in a drawing-room conversation or on a country walk.