Why We Celebrate Jane Austen at 250

My idea of good company … is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation. — Jane Austen

Portrait of Jane Austen, Courtesy Wikimedia

I’m a fan of Jane Austen. And so are several million people around the world, most of whom would agree that is she is the best of company. Austen was born December 16, 1775, and 250 years later, we are still talking about her, and making movies and TV series about her and her books. Most important of all, we’re still reading and discussing her novels and characters.

Would Jane Austen be surprised? Probably. Would she be displeased? Probably not. For a woman who, because of the propriety of the times, could not even put her name on her works, I’d say she’s done pretty well for herself.

What makes Austen’s novels so timeless and unforgettable? The late author, Eudora Welty, in her book, The Eye of the Story, wrote that Austen’s novels withstand time because “they pertain not to the outside world but to the interior, to what goes on perpetually in the mind and the heart.”

Austen takes great pains to give the reader a vivid description of the world in which she lives and the people that she surely encountered throughout her life, who became some of her most memorable characters. From Pride and Prejudice, we meet Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy; in Emma, we greet Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley; in Persuasion, we are introduced to Anne Elliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth; and the other main characters who appear in the remaining novels, Sense and Sensibility (Elinor and Marianne Dashwood), Northanger Abbey (Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney) and Mansfield Park (Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram).

Beyond these endearing main characters, Austen creates a complete world of family, friends, acquaintances, servants, and others. These secondary characters give us, as readers, the opportunity to see behind the curtain — and it is here, in the seemingly simple conversations and interactions, that we glimpse Austen at her best.

We see the inner world of life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and the realities of how that life often constricted and compromised the choices of both women and men. In her heart, Austen was ahead of her time, and her writing shows that she did not always agree with the restrictive societal customs. As readers, we love the many dimensions of life that Austen portrays through her characters because those same qualities continue to play out today.

Debra Ann Miller As
Jane Austen

Friends of the Edgewater Library held a program on November 30, featuring Debra Ann Miller as Jane Austen. Her hour-long performance drew on Austen’s letters, juvenilia, and other sources. The dialogue selected revealed that Austen was witty, charming, irreverent at times, with a deep sense of irony — just what you’d want Jane Austen to be. Her novels are as much about her as about the people who peppered her world.

As a testament to her enduring legacy, CBS Sunday Morning recently featured a segment, “Jane Austen at 250.” It’s a fitting tribute to the author and the thousands of people who still admire and celebrate her more than two centuries later.

Resources | More About Jane Austen

Chicago Public Library | Books, DVDs, and other materials by and about Jane Austen, approximately 516 books, audiobooks, DVDs, and other resources

Friends of the Edgewater Library | Download the Jane Austen Resource List

Debra Ann Miller | For Further Reading and Jane Austen Timeline

Jane Austen Society of North America, JASNA Greater Chicago Region, and Jane Austen Society UK

Book Clubs

In addition to these resources, there are dozens of Jane Austen groups and book clubs on Facebook, Instagram, Meetup, and other social media sites. For a listing, search “Jane Austen” in the social media site of your choice.

Film & TV Adaptations

There are also dozens of film and TV adaptations of Austen’s books, as well as several bio-pics (Becoming Jane and Miss Austen Regrets), and fantasy books, plays, and movies such as Lost in Austen, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberly, Death Comes to Pemberly, and many more.

Continue celebrating Jane Austen into 2026 as PBS Masterpiece announces “Miss Austen, Season 2,” will begin filming; PBS Passport members can stream Season 1 now. Watch for the premiere of “The Other Bennett SIster,” on BritBox, which focuses on Mary Bennett, the middle sister from Pride and Prejudice. BritBox is also home to almost every Jane Austen movie and series adaptation of her books, as well as biopics and fantasy movies and series.