D-Day June 6, 1944

 

[Photo: lbw] 

Jane Austen's defence to accusations of triviality of the novel:

"...there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit and taste to recommend them.  'I am no novel reader...I seldom look into novels...Do not imagine that I often read novels...It is very well for a novel...'  Such is the common cant.  'And what are you reading, Miss --?' 'Oh, it is only a novel!' replies the young lady while she lays down her book with affected indifference or momentary shame.  'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the
greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."

~ Jane Austen, English novelist (1775 - 1817) in  Northanger Abbey [Posthumously Published in 1818].