Jane Austin’s secret source

Out of her young, questioning self, came the grave certainty that the family was the source of art, just as every novel is the fate of a child.

It might be argued that all literature is ultimately about family, the creation of structures – drama, poetry, fiction –
that reflect our immediate and randomly assigned circle of others –
what families do to us and how they can be re-imagined or transcended.

Carol Shields on
Jane Austin
(Penguin Lives, copyright 2001)

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