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250 (& More) Reasons We Love Jane Austen

Austen at 250 logo with fireworks in background



Born on December 16, 1775, Jane Austen turns 250 this year. Help us celebrate! 

Everyone has their own reason for adoring Jane Austen, and we would all love to hear yours. Whether it's as simple as "Mrs. Bennet's nerves," a favorite witty line, or a heartfelt toast, we're gathering a joyful collection of 250—and more!—reasons you, her readers and fans, appreciate her. Join us in celebrating the incomparable Jane!

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Comments

  • Gabriella Spatolisano Aug 26, 2025, 4:44 PM (37 days ago)

    I love Jane Austen because she is funny, she creates complex and real characters, she writes in a beautiful language. And because I can re-read her again and again and never get tired.

  • CHRISTINA DADFORD SIMPSON Aug 23, 2025, 12:26 PM (40 days ago)

    I can read a little or a lot of Jane Austen and always enjoy it. When I was in hospital and drained of energy I would read perhaps a page or two at random and it was like having a visit with an old friend. Jane Austen is timeless - we all know people from her books.

  • Sue A Scott Aug 22, 2025, 10:48 AM (41 days ago)

    I was quiet, but I was not blind.
    ---Fanny Price

  • Hilary Aug 22, 2025, 9:54 AM (41 days ago)

    I love Jane Austen because she has such a brilliant way of depicting how the group-think in a room can go from right to wrong, without anyone noticing the change. For example, in Mansfield Park, originally more characters than Fanny question the propriety of putting on the play the "Lover's Vows," but in the end, Edmund agrees to act in it, and somehow even Fanny is roped into rehearsing lines with others! And in Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, both mothers realized after the fact that they long mistrusted the young men who jilted their daughters.

  • Joanne Cybulski Aug 20, 2025, 2:43 PM (43 days ago)

    I have been reading Jane Austen since I found her books in the library in Middle school.

  • Debra Matheney Aug 20, 2025, 11:08 AM (43 days ago)

    Her insights into women's place in society first attracted me to Jane. She understood marriage was just about the only way for women to attain stability, both financially and socially. Her understanding of human psychology adds to the pleasure of reading her. Her satirical wit was the next layer I enjoyed. She is a marvel at portraying local societies: Look at the differences between those of Emma and Mansfield Park, for example. My appreciation of her writing has grown over the years.

  • Kartiki S. Aug 20, 2025, 7:54 AM (43 days ago)

    She is someone I can be while am reading. She is someone who has been just like me when she was alive. Made similar choices. Her books are a live representation of the same.

  • Laurie Rolland Aug 19, 2025, 7:01 PM (44 days ago)

    Jane Austen's incomparable writing has inspired the endlessly fascinating critical discourse that engages and delights me.

  • Margaret Christmann Aug 19, 2025, 4:19 PM (44 days ago)

    I love how Jane Austen understands so well human nature and how it plays out in social situations.

  • Carol Roberts Aug 19, 2025, 12:18 PM (44 days ago)

    Jane Austen saved my life. At the time I first read Northanger Abbey and discovered her clever wit and ability to skewer those of her world with inimitable prose, I was in the midst of a major depression, and it turned out I had other mental health complications to my depressive disorder, including PTSD. I went through three years of trying to find a medication that worked for my depression, trying 27 different meds. I had to go off all meds to go onto the one that finally worked, meaning a deep depression. But I had my online Austenesque friends to help me. I might have succumbed to the automatic thoughts to harm myself otherwise—in that way, Jane Austen surely did save my life. During two events where I was the victim of targeted bullying related to writing and reviewing, my Austenesque friends were of excellent support. Writing and editing Austenesque fiction have become therapy for me over the recent years as well. I continue to gain friends and enjoyment as a life member of JASNA and with a regular presence on social media on Austenesque groups because I adore Jane Austen’s books and the Regency experience. My life is now nearly all Austen, and it helps keep me positive.

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