Jane Austen Quotes

For the love of Pewter

"People are more ready to borrow & praise, than to buy--which I cannot wonder at;--but tho' I like praise as well as anybody, I like what Edward calls Pewter too."

to her niece Fanny Knight, on whether or not there will be a second edition of Mansfield Park
November 30, 1814 [114]

My own darling child

My boxes of books arrived Friday!

"I want to tell you that I have got my own darling Child from London;--on Wednesday I received one Copy, sent down by Falknor, with three lines from Henry to say that he had given another to Charles & sent a 3d by the Coach to Godmersham."

letter to Cassandra, on receiving her first copy of Pride and Prejudice
January 29, 1813 [79]

(Unfortunately, I left my camera at my parents' this weekend, so I've not been able to take pictures.)

Which makes me long for more

"You will be glad to hear that every Copy of S.&S. is sold & that it has brought me £140--besides the Copyright, if that should ever be of any value.--I have now therefore written myself into £250.--which only makes me long for more."

letter to her brother Frank about the success of Sense and Sensibility
July 6, 1813 [86]

I, um, long for more!  Actually, I would be thrilled just to have enough to be able to afford health insurance. Ugh.

As delightful a creature

"I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, & how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know."

letter to Cassandra, on Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennet
January 29, 1813 [79]

I must write on

"I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on till I am."

letter to Cassandra
October 26, 1813

An author's hopes

"I cannot help hoping that many will feel themselves obliged to buy it.  I shall not mind imagining it a disagreeable Duty to them, so as they do it."

letter to Cassandra, on the release of the second edition of Sense & Sensibility
November 6, 1813 [96]

This makes me laugh!

Such dull elves

"There are a few Typical errors--& a 'said he' or a 'said she' would sometimes make the Dialogue more immediately clear--but 'I do not write for such dull Elves As have not a great deal of Ingenuity themselves.'"

letter to Cassandra on the release of Pride and Prejudice
January 29, 1813 [79]

The "such dull elves" line is a rough quote from Marmion.

On reading other novels

"I . . . am always half afraid of finding a clever novel too clever--& of finding my own story & my own people all forestalled."

letter to Cassandra, on trying to get a copy of Mary Brunton's Self-controul
April 30, 1811 [72]

I can no more forget it...

Well, the wait has begun!  My book should be shipping from the printer any day now, which means that I'll be jumping every time there's a delivery, even if I know it probably won't get here for a couple of weeks.  So hard to believe that the release date is around the corner.  In honor of that, some thoughts from Jane this week on writing.

"I am never too busy to think of S&S.  I can no more forget it, than a mother can forget her suckling child . . ."

on Sense & Sensibility
letter to Cassandra
April 25, 1811 [71]

View from the train of the countryside north of Exeter, where S&S is set.

Writer of Fancy

"It encourages me to depend on the same share of general good opinion which Emma's Predecessors have experienced, & to believe that I have not yet--as almost every Writer of Fancy does sooner or later--overwritten myself."

letter to the Countess of Morley
December 31, 1815