Here's the weird headline for an article by Sarah Lyall in The New York Times: "The Essential Jane Austen: A peerless chronicler of class and romance, the 'Pride and Prejudice” author was never prolific. But her work remains remarkably relevant, more than two centuries after her death." It's weird to say that she wasn't prolific: she wrote and published five novels from 1811 to 1818. And there is no "essential Austen": she completed six novels in all (one written in 1803 but only published in 1818), and they are all central to literary history. And in the end, the article recommends all six of them, so it even admits they're all essential! (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 17 July 2025)