A Woman's Wit

I know what I am going to be doing Friday, barring any decorating emergencies, of course. I will be first in line to view the new Jane Austen exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum! A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy runs from November 6, 2009-March 14, 2010 and "explores the life, work and legacy" of one of Britain's most beloved female novelists. So far my knowledge of Jane Austen has been relegated to reading Pride and Prejudice and watching BBC adaptions of her work so I am excited to see her personal letters, manuscripts and early illustrated novels that will be on display so I can learn more about her. As a writer who tries to be witty, I owe a lot to this legendary lady and I look forward to paying my respects at this wonderful exhibition!

A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment." - Jane Austen

Read more »

Sense and Sensibility

No matter how many times Hollywood tries to remake one of Jane Austen's classics into a film, I can never quite enjoy them. All I see are perfect movie stars and make believe. That's why I will always prefer the BBC versions. They always draw me and make me forget that I am watching a movie and the latest, Sense and Sensibility, is no different. The first part aired Sunday night on PBS and if you missed it, or like me couldn't wait for part two, it's also available on DVD. The actors, costumes and sets are all perfect, including the stately Wrotham Park (above) that stands in for Norland. I just don't know if I find it comforting or distressing that the relations between men and women should be any less confusing today than they were when the novel was published in 1811.

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

If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next. - Jane Austen

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before. - Jane Austen

There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them. - Jane Austen

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. - Jane Austen

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony. - Jane Austen

Read more »