Home ›   |   Jane Austen ›   |   250 (& More!) Reasons We Love Jane Austen

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!

This virtual tribute book is moderated to prevent spamming and off-topic posts. Comments will not appear immediately.

Comments

  • Jane Axelrod Dec 31, 2025, 6:13 PM (36 hours ago)

    I love her wit and humor. Some laugh out loud, some subtle, some ironic. Her observations about human nature and human foibles are so spot on, but never malicious. One sees it all through her characters who are very real and very revealing. She is a mistress of "show don't tell" in her writing. I also love the slow burn of her relationships between men and women, how it develops and comes to fruition in subtle ways.
    One can learn an amazing amount about people and human nature by reading Austen's works,
    She manages to communicate it all without hitting you over the head with it as her insights are not preachy, gloomy or dreary but the observations from daily life and told in story form through memorable characters. She is the ultimate raconteur!

  • Beth Parrish Dec 31, 2025, 12:00 PM (42 hours ago)

    I didn't start reading Austen until I was in my 30's. For the last many years I have turned into a true Janeite! I cannot get enough. I will re-read all her books in succession at least once a year, and never get tired of them. I have recently began to branch into Jane's favorite authors. Reading Clarissa in its entirety. All my literary friends think I am crazy, and I am glad to be crazy for Jane!

  • Fay Radding Dec 31, 2025, 11:53 AM (43 hours ago)

    I've been a fan of history for decades and I love the "Jane-iverse" for giving me the chance to consume with gusto the feelings and daily concerns of Jane Austen and others in her orbit who are at the center of her novels, biographies, film adaptations, spinoffs and last but not least, scholarly articles! I'm captivated and grateful for the inspiration and joy of being a Janeite!

  • MS Dec 31, 2025, 11:17 AM (43 hours ago)

    Jane , is a timeless author because of the descriptiveness of each character in her stories. It enticed me from the very first time I read her book. Giving a glimpse of an epoch gone by.

  • Katherine Koller Dec 31, 2025, 10:08 AM (44 hours ago)

    I love Jane Austen because she is always laughing and encourages us to laugh, too, in the face of inequity, hypocrisy, ignorance and lack of feeling, even behind her most serious observations, right up until the end of Persuasion.

  • Katie Antrainer Dec 31, 2025, 8:02 AM (46 hours ago)

    Reading Jane Austen reminds me that we are not so different from the people that came before us. The human emotion is what makes these novels so timeless.

  • Chris Hench Dec 31, 2025, 5:04 AM (2 days ago)

    In addition to what others have commented, JASNA has provided wonderful family bonding for us. My husband, my daughter and I are all enthusiastic Janeites! In addition, we have many friends we never would have met if it hadn't been for Jane.

  • Molly Gribble Dec 31, 2025, 4:11 AM (2 days ago)

    I was recently at a celebration of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday at the local library. Someone asked the speaker why we were celebrating the 250th birthday of Jane Austen and not Charlotte or Emily Bronte. One person suggested that it might be our need to escape. I asked if it might be that her characters so cleverly challenged men (sometimes to the point of redemption), and this is why we still need her. It is also the reason that she was both beloved and hated. Some men are threatened by a woman just challenging them, but a woman who can deliver the challenge cleverly is downright inconvenient and dangerous to their tightly held ideology.
    Mark Twain once famously said, "Every time I read Pride and Prejudice, I want to dig Austen up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone." Yet he kept reading her works over and over again.

  • Daniel F Read Dec 31, 2025, 3:58 AM (2 days ago)

    My parents divorced when I was 16. My mom had fought for decades to escape my father's nomination. So I think Jane really speaks to me that women can be their own people and with sympathetic egalitarian men they can have true happiness in marriage. After 40 years of being married I am glad to be one of those who have found it. The writing is also great which makes it a lot of fun to read and reread these wonderful books.

  • Catherine J. Golden Dec 30, 2025, 8:04 PM (2 days ago)

    It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen's novels are timeless. In her six published novels, Austen leads us into Regency ballrooms, country estates, and the English countryside but ultimately teaches us much about human emotions. The more I reread her novels, the more I have come to appreciate her sense of humor, too.

1 2 3 4 5 ... 14

Post your comment