(RNS) — When Archdeacon and poet Rachel Mann first read Jane Austen at age 16, she wasn’t exactly a fan.
“I absolutely hated her,” said Mann, who thought Austen’s novels were “frivolous romance stories for very, very posh people.”
But Mann stuck with the novel she was reading — “Emma” — and by the end arrived at a different conclusion.
“I discovered the real Jane, the Jane who is incisive and thoughtful, and...
