The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure…

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.

— Jane Austen

“If Mr. [V.S.] Naipaul takes no pleasure in the happy delineation of the varieties of human nature, then he must be intolerably stupid.”

— Anonymous

It is apparent at first glance that in The Double there is more creative talent and depth of thought than in Poor Folk. But…

— Vissarion Belinsky

“Finally, he gave up trying to quiet her and lit a cigarette, the last resort of a man who finds himself in an intolerably…

— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“A person, be it a man or a woman, who has not been exposed to the great wonders of literature, must be intolerably stupid.”

— Jane Austen

“Nick? Any idea?" Nick coughs too. "Nope. No idea at all." Wilbur gives him a stern look. "So what was the point in doing…

— Holly Smale

When I was in my twenties, I strongly identified with Jane Austen's 'Emma' - her human failings mixed with a desire to do good.

— Amanda Foreman

“Off to sell Jane Austen to the masses.”

— Laurel Ann Nattress

[On Jane Austen:] To believe her limited in range because she was harmonious in method is as sensible as to imagine that when the…

— Rebecca West

I grew up on Jane Austen novels and was a massive literature fanatic when I was a kid - I read everything I could…

— Georgia King

“You know, somewhere a Jane Austen angel just lost her wings over you saying that.”

— Nichole Van

“[Jane] Austen was not a novelist for nothing: she knew that our stories are what make us human, and that listening to someone else's…

— William Deresiewicz

“The celestial brightness of Pride and Prejudice is unequalled even in Jane Austen's other work; after a life of much disappointment and grief, in…

— Elizabeth Jenkins

Look at Jane Austen. Her characters derive in a reasonably straight line from fairy tales.

— Andrew Davies

The difficulty with poetry is that it doesn't have the life that Shakespeare or Jane Austen have beyond the page. You can't make a…

— Simon Schama