Tag: Jane Austen

• January 2, 2012

  Never love by halves

  The late philosopher Gilbert Ryle was fond of Jane Austen, so fond that he once likened Austen’s style of characterization to the technique of wine tasting. There is a joke about him that I quite like. When he was asked whether whether he ever read any novels, he replied, “Yes indeed. Each year all 6.”…
• November 11, 2011

  Jane Austen as moral educator

  A copy of the revised Canterbury Classics edition of Jane Austen’s novels, in which my Introduction appears, arrived in the mailbox yesterday afternoon. I was surprised to see that one of the last words in the Introduction was “lifework.” When you read something you’ve written months or years before, you can’t quite see how the words…