A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Quarterly Reviews 109
Now it is absolutely impossible, without this, to produce that
thorough acquaintance with the characters which is necessary to
make the reader heartily interested in them. Let any one cut out
from the “Iliad” or from Shakspeare’s plays everything (we are
far from saying that either might not lose some parts with advantage,
but let him reject everything) which is absolutely devoid of
importance and interest in itself; and he will find that what is left
will have lost more than half its charms. We are convinced that
some writers have diminished the effect of their works by being
scrupulous to admit nothing into them which had not some absolute
and independent merit. They have acted like those who strip
off the leaves of a fruit tree, as being of themselves good for
nothing, with the view of securing more nourishment to the fruit,
which in fact cannot attain its full maturity and flavour without
them.’°
The world, I think, has endorsed the opinion of the later
writer; but it would not be fair to set down the discrepancy
between the two entirely to the discredit of the former. The fact is
that, in the course of the intervening five years, these works had
been read and reread by many leaders in the literary world. The
public taste was forming itself all this time, and ‘grew by what it
fed on.’ These novels belong to a class which gain rather than lose
by frequent perusals, and it is probable that each Reviewer represented
fairly enough the prevailing opinions of readers in the year
when each wrote.
Since that time, the testimonies in favour of Jane Austen’s
works have been continual and almost unanimous. They are frequently
referred to as models; nor have they lost their first distinction
of being especially acceptable to minds of the highest
order. I shall indulge myself by collecting into the next chapter
instances of the homage paid to her by such persons.