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Today we remember Jane Austen, the British writer born on this date in 1775=
.=20 Austen depreciated herself as a "miniaturist" and a domestic novelist of=20 restricted scope, but her literary legacy is large. She was also able to la= y=20 self-deprecation aside, however, and in Northanger Abbey she declared that= =20 novels -- her chosen genre -- are works in which "the greatest powers of th= e=20 mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, t= he=20 happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and= =20 humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."=01( Austen's work brims with general statements that are contradicted by the=20 people in her stories. For instance, Pride and Prejudice opens by noting th= at=20 "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of= a=20 good fortune, must be in want of a wife." The book then describes Mrs.=20 Bennett, mother of a household full of marriageable daughters as "a woman o= f=20 mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper." As Austen=20 acquaints us with the tale of each daughter's engagements, she=20 wonders, "For what do we live, but to make sport for our= =20 neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?"As Austen acquaints us with the= =20 tale of each daughter's engagements, she wonders, "For what do we live, but= =20 to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?"
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