Is ‘Persuasion’ the Jane Austen story we all need right now?
Last February, during the long winter of the pandemic and almost a year into lockdown, struggling through endlessly quiet hours and freezing temperatures, I turned to Jane Austen. The plan was simply to reread her six major novels. But that simple plan unlocked for me not only new conversations about these iconic novels but also an entire network of readers and thinkers.
As it turns out, Austen’s Regency world is not a bad place to escape to in a time of crisis. Because under all the romance plots and bucolic country walks, characters like Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice” are not only dancing in halls and drinking tea; they’re also bearing up after insults and injury brought on by class, gender, displacement, and loss.
No Austen hero
Stories for the times we’re in“Among the people”