This essay also ran 29 January 2015 in The Houston Chronicle:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
Any objections?
As the evening wanes, I cannot help but note that today was the anniversary of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice (hey, students, that’s right, I said beloved), which was published in 1813 by Thomas Egerton of London. The novel did not even have Austen’s name on it: it was remarked to be “By the Author of ‘Sense and Sensibility.'” Continue reading