Love and friendship

Her Understanding of the Human Character

Jane Austen shows an intuitive understanding of human character. Her intuition is so natural and supple that it appears absolutely simple. She reads the inner minds of her characters as if those minds were transparent. She seizes them in their depths. The secret complexities of self-love, the many vanities, the imperceptible quiverings of selfishness, are all indicated or suggested so calmly and with so sober a touch that the author’s personal reaction is reduced to a minimum. Her stories are perfectly objective and show a spirit of gentle tolerance, though a subtle suggestion of irony hovers over every page and reveals a sharpness of vision that could be extremely severe.