Sydney meeting
Re-reading Jane Austen: the experience of sixty years later
Ben Taaffe

Ben Taaffe describes his talk as follows:

I spoke once before to JASA: the topic, ‘Jane Austen in the Classroom’, a reflection on my years as a school teacher. In 2010, when I left the classroom, I thought that retirement would mark the end of literature classes, that I would bid Jane Austen adieu. But I was wrong.

At this stage of my life, with me in my seventies, Miss Austen and I are back together. Today’s occasion focuses on what I have learned from re-readings, especially from superimposing one novel of Jane Austen onto another.

I have three topics. I am thinking of failed marriage proposals: of Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice, of Mr Elton in Emma, and also the decision by Anne in Persuasion to have ended her engagement. Then two satirical portraits: of Lady Catherine, and of Mrs Elton. A final point looks at the second, successful proposal in Persuasion.

It is the happy case for the readers of Jane Austen that there are always further treasures to be found.