A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Thirty-Three Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen
Edited by Susannah Carson
[Why] does the reader yearn with such helpless fervor for the marriage of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy? Why does the reader crow and flinch with almost equal concern over the ups and downs of Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley? Jane and Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs. Bennet (stupid, prattling, coarse, greedy), is one of the greatest comic nightmares in all literature, yet we are scarcely less restrained than she in our fretful ambition for her daughters. Jane Austen makes Mrs. Bennets of us all. How? —Martin Amis
Question: What do you, C. S. Lewis, Harold Bloom, Eudora Welty, W. Somerset Maugham, Alain de Botton, Virginia Woolf, and all of us here at Bas Bleu have in common? Answer: a grand appreciation for Jane Austen! A Truth Universally Acknowledged—an engaging collection of essays (some decades old, some newly composed)—revels in the myriad reasons that Austen’s novels and characters have such wide and enduring appeal. The keen insights of thirty-three great writers, including the authors named above, are sure to delight and enlighten Jane-ites. (And how refreshing to know that we Austen-obsessed are in such good company!) (Text and image courtesy of Bas Bleu)
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