Inspired by Austen’s own titles, what title would you give Austen’s complete works? Tenderness? Money and Misery? Love and Happiness? Candour and Contempt? Romance and Reason? Good Will and Good Riddance? All suggestions welcome.

Laughter and Compassion is my suggestion. I will range through Austen’s works, exploring how they matter at key moments, and how they help us to appreciate Austen’s achievement. I will ask what’s right with laughter, and what’s wrong with it. Looking at scenes like Box Hill, and characters such as Mr Bennet (one of my favourites) and Mary Crawford, I will explore why compassion is so important.

I am a lifelong reader of Austen. Once I might have thought of myself as a young hero, then I became Mr Bennet, now I am Mr Woodhouse. Like Mr Bennet, I have retired to my library, where I am writing but never finishing a book on Austen that has the same title as this talk. I will be extremely anxious that my poor listeners will be supplied with thin gruel.

Speaker - David Norton

All welcome.

Please note this meeting has changed to online