Let Other Pens Dwell on Guilt and Misery

Alexander Rikowski, our eldest son, has just bought the complete set of the BBC Productions of Jane Austen's novels. How wonderful!

This is someone that does not read much fiction and has not studied English Literature, but is starting to love and appreciate the classics more and more. He has noted, in particular, the increasing popularity of Jane Austen, which in one sense is quite bizarre (given how different are the times that we live in today). But in another sense, it makes perfect sense. Life today, in many ways, is too fast, surface and consumerist. To counteract this, to bring meaning back into our lives, to relate to each other with some depth and feeling, to have a sense of well-being and calm, the classics becoming ever more important. A good alternative to a religious road which can give one false hopes!

Anyway, I was prompted to write this blog, because of the great quote by Jane Austen that is on the back of this wonderful DVD set.

"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody, not greatly in fault themselves, to tolerable comfort and to have done with all the rest."

What more can I say? This says so much about what it is about Jane Austen's work that is just so perfect!