Joking with Jane in January, Part Two, by Diana Birchall

There is always something to learn from Jane Austen. Even when you sit down to write a light piece picking out some of your favorites among her infinite jests, you notice things you never saw before, and come to new observations, new conclusions. Last week, when I divided her books into the first three last week, with the three “mature” novels for this week, it starkly revealed to me a truth that has no doubt been obvious to many all along: that the two sets of books are markedly different in n...