(BOOK GIVEAWAY) Tell Us What Jane Austen Means to You

Her heroines are inspirational role models. Interesting, intelligent, and creative, they never settle for less than fulfillment.

Jane Austen was the precursor to The Feminine Mystique. She was way ahead of her time. I love her writing.

I got my BA in English Lit and my focus was 19th Century British Literature ... more specifically Jane Austen. Austen’s heroines are timeless to me. They embody intelligence, strength, poise and whit. When I was in college I would sit on the patio of the beach house I rented with my friends, completely absorbed in Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. The summer before my last year at university I decided to study in London. I remember one day before my afternoon class, I took a bus into the countryside to Winchester Cathedral to see Jane Austen’s grave and on to Chawton to see the home she lived out the last years of her life. I missed the bus going back, but seeing these historical landmarks of an author I cherished fueled my desire to become a writer myself.

I got my BA in English Lit and my focus was 19th Century British Literature ... more specifically Jane Austen. Austen’s heroines are timeless to me. They embody intelligence, strength, poise and whit. When I was in college I would sit on the patio of the beach house I rented with my friends, completely absorbed in Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. The summer before my last year at university I decided to study in London. I remember one day before my afternoon class, I took a bus into the countryside to Winchester Cathedral to see Jane Austen’s grave and on to Chawton to see the home she lived out the last years of her life. I missed the bus going back, but seeing these historical landmarks of an author I cherished fueled my desire to become a writer myself.

I hate to admit I've never read any Jane Austen books. Sad. I should have in college, would have thought it would be required. I have one two books downloaded on my nook of Jane Austen and plan on reading her and have told my daughter to read them as well.

Laura Kay

A Novel Review

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I read Jane Austen in college and loved her. She was a welcome respite from most of the garbage I had to read. My oldest just graduated with a BA in Literature/Writing, so I got to walk through Austen again with her! What a treat!

Jane Austen taught me that even strong women shouldn't be afraid to read romance, or, for that matter, have romance in their lives!

Jane Austen is one of my all-time favorite authors. I don't like reading books that continue the stories done by modern-day authors, but her books are fantastic. I am quite partial to Pride and Prejudice--one of the earliest classics I read and enjoyed. I recently read Mansfield Park, and I am in the middle of watching and excellent adaptation of this classic.

I actually have never read any of her books but would love to!! I have bought her books as gifts for other people : )

I actually have never read any of her books but would love to!! I have bought her books as gifts for other people : )

Keri
"The Blue-Eyed Runner"

I would LOVE to win!!

They are such classics and I want an opportunity to read them.

Kelli

Who among us doesn't want our life to end as it should...to meet the man that both challenges us and excites us. Even if odds are against us, we all would love to have a happy ending, that defies social stereotypes in order to finally receive the validation of having a honorable man or decent lifestyle.

Growing up in a community of seemingly perfect families, I always felt that I was the black sheep. The only one in my school to come from a broken home. My father left our family and was deep into his drug use and alcoholism and decided to live freely with other women and show up at home on occasion.

Yes, his reputation was counter productive to my reception into the conservative lifestyle led by all the other children at the private school that I attended. My mother couldn't afford to raise all of us and send us to private school, so I was the one on the school scholarship...the charity case.

One of my first reading assignments at the school was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was my first encounter with a life, that although in a different era, let me escape and hope that one day people would see me as a respectable member of the community and that I too would meet my Mr. Darcy and live happily ever after.

I began to read other books and found that the endings of all of Mrs. Austen's works turned out exactly how I had hoped. It seemed that things could work out well in the end, even when like Emma, I made mistakes in friendships, I realized that all hope was not lost and that I should strive to be a better friend.

Sense and Sensibility, taught me that sometimes your feelings can steer you wrong, but also that sometimes you have to let go and allow things to be imperfect, and often therein lies perfection....the perfection of peaceful release and gratitude.

Jane Austen's novels evoked in me a love for reading, but also a hope for life and a devotion to be a hopeful romantic because even for those of us who've endured hardships, there can be happy endings...and I should know...because I am living proof.

This book taught me the value and pleasure of READING! I remember struggling through this one in the 8th grade, and then practicing my SWOON for the imaginary Mr. Darcy with my 13 year old friends! We loved Jane Austen!

Oops duplicate comment I will leave it-maybe it will be the winner!

When I was young, I read quickly without paying attention for sheer entertainment as the words whizzed by. Then I read Emma - she slowed me down and made me read harder, that is, I paid attention

I never dated much, and like Lizy I guarded my heart until I met my hubby. He was very outspoken and very much like Mr. Darcy. I decided to give him a chance like lizzy did. Going on 6 years now, I thank jane Austin every day!

I'm a Jane Austen late comer. My daughter and I swooned over the Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightly movie. My daughter is the true JA fan. Maybe I'll take this up as summer reading. Thanks for initiating the contest. Cool idea :)

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Jane Austen taught me to live my dreams and be mindful of the times in which we live.

Jane taught me that love is often right there in front of your face. It just takes a moment to realize it sometimes.

I haven't read Jane Austen...but I want to. My plan is to read all of the books this winter. I think reading them will teach me to appreciate how good I have it in these modern times.

Please...pick me. Teach. Me.

Emma taught me that life is in the little things.

Jane Austen taught me that expressing myself is valuable, and that being true to myself and my feelings are doubly so.

I'd love to be able to share my love of Austen with my mom, who played Lizzie and Charlotte in P&P when she was in high school. We both have learned many lessons from her literature and it would be great to share the value of reading her with my mom.

I started reading my mother's old Jane Austen books the year I turned 15, which was also the year I started learning English. My father had died earlier that year and I slept in the same bed as Mom, who did not mind that I kept the bedside lamp on until the wee hours of the morning, holding a cup of readymade soup in one hand and turning the pages of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and the like with the other, occasionally reaching for the Oxford English dictionary. The world of women that Jane Austen had created provided a safe haven for me - I got so lost in those worlds that I spent my days waiting for the nights to come so I could curl up in bed and read. When I couldn't wait anymore, I took a copy of Emma to school with me and started to read it under the table in geography class. Needless to say, I was discovered, and the book confiscated to my great dismay.
I love Jane Austen because with her writing, she reached her hand out to an odd, sad, literature-loving teenage girl from a different part of the world in a different century. The kind of literature I was made to read in school left my world of imagination yearning for strong female characters, something I lamented for many years when I was younger. Jane Austen's fiction introduced me to a world of women whom I could identify with, even if they lived in different places, under different circumstances and in a very different time than I did.
These are some of the reasons why I love Jane Austen.

After days of reading nuanceless tweets, casual blogs, and dumbed-down online news stories, there's something soothing to the Type-A wannabe English major about Jane Austen's writing. The words are beautifully crafted. Case in point: Elizabeth Bennet's "delight in the absurd."

Solidarity.

--Kristina

www.OnBlank.com ( http://www.OnBlank.com )

Jane Austen showed me that real heroes are rarely who you expect them to be starting out. ;)

Many a rainy afternoon in my teens was spent curled up in a chair, burying myself in someone else's tortured romantic angst, courtesy of Ms. Austen. Oh, how I identified with the heroines in her stories! ;) I devoured her books as quickly as I could lay my paws on them and enjoy rereading them even now -- winning this would give me incentive to sit down and read through all of her books again (something I've intended to do since starting to track the books I read each year)!

Never read Austen until I was out of college, what??? Would love to share these with my daughter.

I love Jane Austen. She has been such an inspiration. She was forward thinking, confident, and well ahead of her time. She teaches women to be confident and not to settle for less than they deserve. She has been my inspiration to start a writing career as well.

Jane Austen taught me that there is some romantic literature that I actually find thoroughly enjoyable! Before I read Austen, all I read was scifi and fantasy - now I can't imagine reading without regency romances!

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Jane Austen taught me that real heroes are usually understated (i.e. Col. Brandon). For that, I thank her.

These books with my daughters!

A small point, of course, but after reading "Sense & Sensibility," I put in the 1995 adaptation, and that introduced me to the awesomeness of Alan Rickman as Col. Brandon. That's a treat in itself. :)

I've always been a big reader, but Jane Austen takes reading to another level. I tried to tackle "Pride & Prejudice" in 6th grade, but it was too much for me. A year later, I steeled myself and said, "I'm going to get through this." I read it, and I realized how much I had to think *as* I was reading it. Jane Austen changed my life by introducing me to the full immersion of reading; her style and use of language is very different from how we write today, so it's a fun challenge to tackle her novels and work through them. I find them easier--and perhaps a bit more enjoyable--now that I'm an adult, but I'll always be grateful to Ms. Austen's polished style for introducing me to reading the classics. I'd love to win this set so I can read the rest of her novels (and reread my favorites, "Pride & Prejudice" and "Mansfield Park").

Jane Austen taught me to never settle for a Wickham.

Jane Austen did a wonderful job of telling about life in a normal way! The best lesson from her is that there are always second chances (I learned that from Emma and Pride and Prejudice).
as they really were, but also that
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee- Muhammed Ali

BY being really ahead of her time and including headstrong, fascinating, stubborn young women in her books, Jane Austen really influenced me to never give up following my dream and never to settle when it comes to the relationships I have with friends, family, and suitors. Score 1 for feminism!

Jane taught me to love a love story of any shape and size. Proven by the fact that Jane is the reason romance novels are a multi-million dollar industry today.

HomeGrown http://www.bigredcouch.com/journal

Seriously.... Mr. Darcy changed me. I never knew that a book character could be so incredibly handsome! Wow... I need to win this!

The Paper Mama ( http://www.thepapermama.com )