“Our family are great Novel-readers and not ashamed of being so.” Jane Austen, Letter to Cassandra, 1798

It is a truth universally acknowledged within my sphere of close acquaintance that I may find relationships between the works of Miss Jane Austen and daily life at the smallest opportunity or provocation.  Therefore I encourage you to consider with what delight I greeted the idea of celebrating the day of my birth with an Austen themed party, only to discover that the chosen day corresponded perfectly with “Talk Like Jane Austen Day,” this Saturday the 30th of October.

Cassandra Austen (1773-1845). Portrait of Jane Austen (c. 1810). Watercolor and pencil. National Portrait Gallery, London: NPG 3630

If you choose to follow the link I have provided above, you will arrive at a page describing the intent of the event and several helpful suggestions as to grammar and vocabulary.  For your further edification and delight I have compiled a few other destinations you may seek out at your leisure:

Take Back Halloween: Jane Austen — It is my belief that Miss Austen would approve of the efforts of these enterprising women, who seek to offer the costume-deprived with more interesting and intellectual alternatives to the ubiquitous ‘Sexy ____’ costumes for women.

Jane Austen’s World — I must list this as among my favorites of the plenitude of blogs available discussing the life, times, and works of the great Miss Austen.

Austen Films Underestimate Her Heroines — Here is truth indeed!  I readily admit that I have often claimed Mansfield Park as my least favorite of Miss Austen’s works, but this critic has convinced me that I ought to look beyond my ‘first impressions’ and give Fanny Price another chance to demonstrate her worth.

And so on the occasion of my birthday, what has the lady herself to say?

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before.
Jane Austen, Persuasion

And as I shall be but eight and twenty, it seems I have yet much to anticipate.  Thank you, Miss Austen.  That is a great comfort.