A Taliswoman Short — In retrospect, subtlety was lost on me as a teenager. I would have denied it forcibly at the time, but I was a rather obvious child, all fiery wild-haired dramatics. Quite the opposite of Jane Austen, who, if I’m honest, appalled teenaged me with her domesticity & her characters’ preoccupation with class & marriage. As a fairly smart kid who loved reading & fancied herself a bit of a poet, 17-year-old me couldn’t conceive of the fact that maybe, just maybe, Jane Austen’s wit was above my head. That she, like the people in her novels, was locked in a gilded cage with as little hope for escape, or for survival outside, as a pet canary with clipped wings.
