The Art of Letter Writing

"I have now attained the true art of letter-writing, which we are always told, is to express on paper exactly what one would say to the same person by word of mouth; I have been talking to you almost as fast as I could the whole of this letter."

As written by Jane Austen in one of the many letters she sent to her sister Cassandra. Dated January 3, 1801.

The image is of the controversial Rice Portrait of Jane Austen, by British society painter Ozias Humphry (1742-1810).  It is one of the single most disputatious and intriguing literary portraits in existence.