I've been reading the letters for the first time (here at austenfans) and am struck by how fun and funny they are... as the author herself says,she indeed has "spirit."

www.austenfans.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84&Itemid=44

just a couple of clippings from that letter...I found myself grinning. Hope you enjoy.


My expectation of having nothing to say to you after the conclusion of my last, seems nearer Truth than I thought it would be, for I feel to have but little. I need not therefore be above acknowledging the receipt of yours this morng*; or of replying to every part of it which is capable of an answer; & you may accordingly prepare for my ringing the Changes of the Glads & Sorrys for the rest of the page.-Unluckily however I see nothing to be glad of, unless I make it a matter of Joy that Mrs. Wylmot has another son, & that Ld* lucan has taken a Mistress, both of which Events are of course joyful to the Actors;-but to be sorry I find many occasions, the first is that your return is to be delayed, & whether I ever get beyond the first is doubtful. It is no use to lament.-I never heard that even Queen Mary's Lamentation did her any good, & I could not therefore expect benefit from mine.-We are all sorry, & now that subject is exhausted.

You see I have a spirit, as well as yourself. Frank & Mary cannot at all approve of your not being at home in time to help them in their finishing purchases, & desire me to say that, if you are not, they shall be as spiteful as possible & chuse everything in the stile most likely to vex you, knives that will not cut, glasses that will not hold, a sofa without a seat, & a Bookcase without shelves.

I found her letters to be very interesting. I am the type of reader who has trouble distinguishing between the author and the characters, which most of the time leads me to imagine their exotic, action-packed lives.

In this case, it was intriguing to read her personal letters to family and friends and separate her from her characters that have made her so famous almost 200 years after her death. Jane might be the first author I am able to see actually making up the stories she writes and not actually living them.

I would say, if you have some free time, read some of the letters that are posted in the About Jane and Her Times section of this website, you won't be sorry!

Why are such random words capitalized?