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How is it that, a full two centuries after Jane Austen finished her manuscript, we come to the world of Pride and Prejudice and find ourselves transcending customs, strictures, time, mores, to arrive at a place that educates, amuses, and enthralls us? It is a miracle. We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.
Anna Quindlen
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects the timeless impact of literature on human experience, bridging reality and imagination.

Anna Quindlen highlights the enduring influence of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' over the centuries, suggesting that literature allows readers to transcend societal norms and connect with deeper human experiences. She emphasizes the power of reading, which serves as a form of escapism that merges life with dreaming, offering profound insights into the human condition through the lens of another's thoughts.

Themes

LiteratureReadingImaginationJane AustenPride And Prejudice

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote during a literary discussion about the timelessness of classic novels.

More from Anna Quindlen

The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have.
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The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you'd never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools.
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I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.
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With reference to the younger generation..."If the experience of their exhausted, insomniac, dispirited elders makes them decide they'd prefer not to go straight from the classroom to the cubicle to the coffin, it doesn't mean they're lazy. It means they're sane."
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Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them.
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I conveniently forgot to remember that people only have two hands, or, as another parent once said of having a third child, it's time for a zone defense instead of man-to-man.
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