by Dwight Longenecker
In his rule St Benedict advises that each monk should have a holy book to read during Lent. When searching for a holy book we are not likely to reach for one of Jane Austen’s novels. Nevertheless, this Lent I re-read Pride and Prejudice and not too long ago I took down my copy of Sense and Sensibility and was not disappointed. At the heart of the story lies a very lenten lesson from Miss Austen, and it is C.S.Lewis, in an obscure essay, who enlightens us.
One always suspected that the bluff and hearty C.S.Lewis would delight in the works of Jane Austen. Her down to earth common sense connected with his enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures as well as his dislike of cant, hypocrisy and humbug of all kinds. Given a time machine to transport someone to 1950s Oxford, no doubt C.S.Lewis would have been quite happy to welcome Plain Jane Austen to the Bird and Baby pub in Oxford to spar with the Inklings. She would have timidly intruded on that male preserve perhaps introduced by Dorothy Sayers.
The essay in question is ‘A Note on Jane Austen’ archived in Selected Literary Essays edited by Walter Hooper, and in the essay it is Austen’s humor and humility that captures Lewis’ fancy and directs us to the Lenten lesson.