Jane Austen: Closet Classicist

It is a truth universally established that Jane Austen knew neither Latin nor Greek. As a literary detective, Mary Margolies DeForest disputes this. In Austen's day, classically educated women were loathed. Austen wanted readers to know that she and her best characters had a classical education--just not in her lifetime Unlike writers who paraded their educational credentials, Austen did not send modern readers diving into footnotes to translate a chunk of Greek or Latin. Instead, she revealed a classical education subtly but profoundly. As DeForest argues, a classical education shapes Austen's characters, their language, and their stories.