Right again, Miss Austen

I was reading something for work the other day and ran across this quote, “ I’ve just finished my latest novel. I think I shall title it “Persuasion” and it may be the one that is closest to my heart. There are those who dismiss novels, who undervalue their importance. I disagree. I truly believe that novels are works in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which they most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.”

It is of course written by Miss Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra.

I love this quote. I love how succinctly Miss Austen wraps up what a novel is yet, at the same time, is able to show the broad depth and scope of a novel.

I love reading. I love reading novels more than anything else for the same reasons outlined in the quote above. Human nature is so prevalent. I can pick up a 18^th century British novel and still understand the characters, see something of myself in them. I think that is why I love Austen so much. Her insight to human nature and social situations astound me. She never takes a huge overarching plot filled with twist and turns, but simply takes a normal, ordinary, day to day life and finds the magic in it.

When I read her novels, I sit back and wonder what magic am I missing in my life? What lessons are being taught, and what small nuances am I simply missing, because I haven’t been looking for them?

It is something I have tried to do in my own writing. Taking normal people in a normal situation and make them find the magic. There are no quick and easy fixes, just like in life. Instead it is a process in which the character learns a little on the way. How awful would Pride and Prejudice be if Darcy fixed everything right after proposal number 1? Would the characters have learned and grown? We would be missing the essential bits of the story, the growth of Elizabeth (and the growth of Darcy). It would simply become a quick glossed over solution leaving all couples involved with no legs to stand on. Who wants that?

So yes, Jane, though there are people that would argue with you I must agree that novels are works in which the “greatest powers of the mind are displayed.”