Thank you so much for welcoming me to My Jane Austen Book Club today, Maria
Grazia, and for kicking off the blog tour! I am honored and delighted to introduce myself
and tell you a little bit about what inspired my recently published book, Jane Austen Speaks: About Life, the Modern
World, & Heavenly Pursuits.
My name is Maria-Emilia de Medeiros, and I
began my lifelong love for Jane Austen when I was twelve years old. An entire new world opened up before me when
first I laid eyes upon the first pages of Emma. In the many years since that day, I have
eagerly learned everything I could about Miss Austen and her world. Lately, I have been inspired to write about
it.
How many times have you ever heard a Jane
Austen fan wonder aloud, “What would Jane Austen think about this?”
Perhaps you have had such thoughts yourself. This book was born out of my own frequent
musings about what the illustrious English novelist, born in the late
eighteenth century into a proper Anglican clergyman’s family, would think about
all manner of phenomena in the modern day world. If someone could “channel” Jane Austen’s
spirit, what would she think? What would
she notice? Most importantly, what would
she have to say about it? Would Miss
Austen approve of internet dating, for example?
(Perhaps she would…for Mr. Collins!)
