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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

  • Lynn M Sherick Sep 16, 2025, 3:31 PM (26 days ago)

    She is a genius and has enriched my life immensely. The truth-telling and revelation of human nature captured in every day life with universal characters applies today and will continue to always apply. Her insights help us navigate and understand our relationships today. Thank you, Jane.

  • David Lewellen Sep 16, 2025, 8:46 AM (27 days ago)

    There once was a writer named Austen
    Whose work we all love to get lost in.
    Wit and truthfulness make
    Her succulent cake
    And excellent style is the frostin'.

  • Ilene Steele Sep 16, 2025, 8:45 AM (27 days ago)

    I love Jane Austen for all the reasons listed. I do notice her use of letters to great effect. My favorite, and favorite line, is in the letter Wentworth writes to Anne after she speaks of the constancy of love by women. He writes, "You pierce my soul." I always feel a little thrill for Anne because her dreams are finally coming true.

  • Sabrina Bartholomew Sep 16, 2025, 7:43 AM (27 days ago)

    My love of Jane Austen's work came on gradually. I had read her books and seen the adaptations. I loved her wit and dialogue. Years later I joined a regency LARP group and it rekindled my love for her work. These days Jane's never far from my thoughts. I joined JANSA last year when I found out about it. I love discussing her work and those inspired by it. Truly her genius has no end. May it ever be so.

  • Karen Field Sep 15, 2025, 6:04 PM (27 days ago)

    I met Jane for the first time when I became bedridden with Lupus and Lyme Disease. A friend brought over the 1995 Pride and Prejudice and we watched it a few episodes at a time.i was hooked. I then read all of her books and early works. I then began to obtain them and haven’t stopped reading them since! I love her accessibility to real life and her joy in her characters.

  • Jean M Zhuño Sep 15, 2025, 5:51 PM (27 days ago)

    My favorite aspect of Jane Austen’s writing is her sly digs at her own mother. Through the witty, wry commentary on Mrs Bennett, Mrs Musgrove, Lady Bertram, Lady Middleton, and many other mothers, we can hear Jane’s own mother whinging away! As the oldest daughter of a 90-year-old mother, with many decades of fraught relationships behind us, I truly enjoy joining in Jane’s ridicule. In other words, she sanctions my critiques of my own dear mother.

  • Lisa Caffee Sep 15, 2025, 4:32 PM (27 days ago)

    I've loved Jane Austen since college. On a whim, as a graduating senior, I asked a literature professor what this economics major had missed taking all math, stats, and business. She sighed...deeply... then recommended Pride and Prejudice. I read it twice in two weeks...then everything else by Austen in a great rush.

  • Becky Sep 9, 2025, 5:58 PM (33 days ago)

    I love Jane Austen because her observations prove the more the world changes, the more it stays the same. Humanity’s quirks, frailties, and foibles are timeless.

  • Erna Arnesen Sep 8, 2025, 9:53 PM (34 days ago)

    I love Jane Austen because her brilliant books have been the vehicle for a broad community to develop with many different interests and entry points. The books themselves, the Regency period - its dress, laws, culture, food, wars, etc. - have allowed us all to congregate around what we love most in life and share Jane Austen with a community of like-minded individuals.

  • M Aug 31, 2025, 7:23 PM (42 days ago)

    I love Jane Austen because she addresses folly in a way that does not intice the reader to join in; rather it encourages the reader to choose what is right because they see it's goodness. Instead of romanticizing running away with a lover she leads young readers to see how this choice lacks the joy obtained by waiting for marriage, without falling into the trap of sounding ever so prudish. She pulls her reader into the moment, causing us to cringe as if we had uttered such shameful unkindness instead of Emma. Jane Austen doesn't talk down to her reader but almost magically avoids being preachy while pulling her readers into a world where we learn to abhor foolish behavior and crave kindness, gentleness and propriety.

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