-for though a very few hours spent in the hard labor of incessant talking will dispatch more subjects that can really be in common between two rational creatures, yet for the lovers is different. Between them no subject is finished; no communication is ever made, till it has been made at least twenty times over.

Austen's letter marked "Declined by Return of Post". It is unlike any of Austen's other works. Marriage was impractical as both Lefroy and Austen must have known.

She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to her development as a professional writer. Her realism and biting social commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.