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For centuries, Jane Austen’s writing has been renowned for its wit, self-awareness and realism. Even now, on what would have been the novelist s 245th birthday on Dec. 16, Austen’s fiction continues to find new audiences and relevance.
Lizzie Dunford, director of Jane Austen’s House, an independent museum in the house where Austen spent the last eight years of her life, says parallels between Austen’s 18th-century life and the pandemic in 2020 have become apparent.
“[Jane Austen] didn’t have a lot of the freedoms that we would normally take for granted, about freedom of movement. . If she wanted to go somewhere else, she had to be escorted by a brother or by other relatives and family. So, actually, I think her sense of a closed world has been very similar and very relevant to our experiences this year.”