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“Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.” - Mark Twain

“Any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book,” and lamented that “it seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.” - Mark Twain

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Of the former quotation, I at first thought, "How terrifically jejune." Then, naturally, I wondered how reading P&P became a recurring annoyance for him. Was it simply for self-indulgent infuriation? In the end, I am left simply to lament: all those readings, and he never learned to appreciate satire.

I've enjoyed reading Jane Austen, but saying that Mark Twain "never learned to appreciate satire", well, I can only suggest you read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Or, really, almost any of his works.

It's a bit heavy handed and preachy in comparison to Austen though. (Which isn't to say I don't like it.)

With irony in vogue but subtlety out of fashion, absurdity treads a fine line. A line no wider, even, than the itsy-bitsy Mississippi.

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