Sayings of Jane Austen

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then.

One cannot always be laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour.

An annuity is a serious business.

Jane Austen’s novels take us back to an enchanted world of leisure. Her acerbic style has been much imitated; her sharp, precise prose is redolent of a vanished age when simplicity and elegance reigned. For many readers she is the only novelist worth reading and re-reading. This selection is drawn both from her major and minor works (including the unfinished novels and juvenilia), and from her perceptive and often coruscating letters, to provide an entertaining sample of her wit.