Dec. 15, 2025
Contact: Sara Diedrich, diedrichs@missouri.edu
Photo by Jen Manning

Born 250 years ago, Jane Austen, the queen of Regency-era sass and razor-sharp wit, hasn’t lost her place in the spotlight. Her six iconic novels? Never out of print. They’re basically the Taylor Swift albums of classic literature: timeless, beloved and endlessly remixed.

And University of Missouri students in Professor Nancy West’s course on the legendary British novelist can’t get enough of Austen’s romantic musings, hot takes and pithy remarks.

“The class is a big hit, in part because the discussions are so lively,” West, an English professor in the College of Arts and Science, said. “Walking up the stairs, I can hear them all the way down the hallway, talking about the books.”

This story originally appeared on Show Me Mizzou. 
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