Janeites

A Truth Universlly Acknowledged  is subtitled 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen. Among them are Sir Walter Scott, Anythony Trollope, Virginia Woolf  and C.S. Lewis. What a lineup!
I read and reread Jane Austen because I thnk there is no other author who so describes human interaction. The language may change, but the soul is the same. I read Jane Austen to relearn how to write irony. The descriptions of characters, without giving more than an indication of how they look-wish I could do that. The book is edited by Susannah Carson, and  her essay is first, followed by (gasp!) Eudora Welty, followed by many more writers, from the 18th, 19th, 20th, even 21st centuries. While Pride and  Prejudice  remains my favorite, I also like the more complicated Emma and the disturbing  Mansfield Park.  Right now, because of the intense work on my own rewrites, I'm  back reading Pride and Prejudice  for the umpty umph time, to soothe my battered soul.
This is a great Christmas Gift for  your Janeite.