English Students Study Jane Austen’s Work

Students in Professor of English Robin Colby’s ENG 321 course, The Novels of Jane Austen, have a special reason to study the work of this famous author this semester: December 16, 2025, marks Austen’s 250th birthday.

Colby says the course, which is offered regularly, fills up every time, even when its offering doesn’t coincide with a significant milestone. She believes Austen’s iconic characters are the main draw.

“Students love reading about strong female characters who break out of confining roles and stereotypes, speak their minds, and hold out for what they want,” Colby says. “Whether they are reading about innocent Catherine Morland, spunky Elizabeth Bennet, privileged Emma Woodhouse, or undervalued Anne Elliot, students meet characters who remind them a little bit of themselves. Austen’s central characters make mistakes, learn, and grow.”

While Austen’s upcoming milestone birthday has readers around the world celebrating her birthday, Colby says Austen and her work are “enjoying a real surge in popularity” because of her skills as a writer. 

“She’s especially skilled at drawing us into her world, a world that is foreign in some ways and completely familiar in others,” Colby says. “Students are engaged by the details that Austen reveals about life in the Regency period—especially the social expectations around manners, dress, social events, and courtship. At the same time, they are gripped by the enduring themes that Austen explores: family relationships, friendship, loss, and love.”

This semester, students prepared reports and presentations on a wide range of topics, from etiquette to card games to carriages, and they used presentations to express their own creativity.  

“One presenter came in full Regency costume,” Colby says. “Another special class activity involved learning a Scottish country dance called “Mairi’s Wedding.” 

Colby says one of the most special parts of ENG 321 is that it “has helped Jane Austen fans form a little community on our campus.”

Meredith readers and fans “enjoy Austen’s abundant humor and wit, collect their favorite Austen quotations, and display Austen-themed laptop stickers. And, like all Janeites, students adore those iconic happy endings,” she says.

The class has also resulted in accolades for Meredith students in the past. Several students have entered the Jane Austen Society of North America’s annual essay contest, and she expects several more will do so this year.

“Meredith students have won in the past—more than once!” Colby says.