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I started to get to known Jane at around the start of the pandemic. It was quite a surprise since I have never completed reading an English novel or books of that sort. Partially because I wasn’t quite into the genre “romance” books. One year later, after I’ve completed all of her books, boy was I wrong.

I started with Pride and Prejudice like a lot of other first-time Austen readers. It wasn’t a smooth read at least at the first several chapters. However I was quickly drawn into the her world when things start to picked up speed. The text is just full of life and I can feel my brain being trained to adapt to the quick and sharp commentary style of her writing. I honestly laughed uncontrollably several times for her sense or humour and ruthless sarcasm. At times I would wonder what type of person she’ll be like if she’ll be living in today’s world. Well, I think she’ll just be fine I tell myself. I would like to re-read the whole book and do some my review and output my thought in another article but overall I like the wittiness, the depth of human observation and the genuine discussion on marriage and love.

Then I completed Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park and Northranger Abbey (in that order). It was hard to for me to stop once I get into each of those novels. Each one is unique and has its own glittering qualities but I can honestly say that they are all unequivocally Austen.

Rather than her writing style I think it’s more of her exuberant personality that captures new readers like me. I can metaphysically be connected to her through her dialogues, her thought process and most vividly from her characters. It’s a superpower of any writer to be able to teleport experiences across cultures and time.

I’m still in the process of re-reading some of her books and I can wait to get to know more. It’s an exacting journey that you will be able to pick up any paragraphs of her book and be immersed in it. Right now I’m reading Persuasion again and I just realized I’ve missed a lot of details on the dynamics between Anne and her family. I found the first chapters rather bane when I was reading it first time. Now that I’ve known the plot and the how characters interact, I get to appreciate more why Anne is such a great characters and why the word “persuasion” carries so much weight in a persons’ important life events.