The wicked wit of Jane Austen - Dominique Enright

The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen is an absorbing collection of the
author's sharpest, most profound and amusing observations - on human
nature, money, marriage, life and society - taken from her novels and
from her extremely entertaining letters. Austen's social insights remain
as fresh today as when they were first published, and this delightful
volume offers the reader a thematic distillation of her novels and
letters. It also contains numerous quotes displaying Austen's sharp -
indeed, often wicked - social observation and satirical wit. Jane Austen had little contact with society outside her
extended family, and none whatsoever with London literary life. Yet, her
novels earned her the acclaim of such literary figures as Sir Walter
Scott, who praised her 'talent for describing the involvements and
feelings and characters of ordinary life'.
Austen's novels are studies
of universal human social traits - romantic innocence, self-delusion,
gullibility, greed, snobbery, rudeness, arrogance, and obsequiousness -
which focus principally on the antics of those seeking well-connected
and well-appointed husbands and their efforts to elbow out their less
'suitable' rivals. Featuring quotes from such novels as Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Pride and Prejudice, alongside extracts from Austen's letters to her sister and
confidante, Cassandra, The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen is a charming
tribute to a writer whose work will resonate for centuries to come.