“I always read Jane Austen during wars. Her complete lack of interest in Napoleon's activities has a soothingly insulating effect.”

“Jane austen says: a heroine has pride despite her imperfections.”

“All reading is good reading. And all reading of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens is sublime reading.”

“I cannot imagine a world in which one can read Jane Austen only once.”

“I am a Jane Austenite, and therefore slightly imbecile about Jane Austen. My fatuous expression, and airs of personal immunity—how ill they sit on the face, say, of a Stevensonian! But Jane Austen is so different. She is my favourite author! I read and reread, the mouth open and the mind closed. Shut up in measureless content, I greet her by the name of most kind hostess, while criticism slumbers.”

“Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles.”