Hello, small but loyal group of followers! Would you like to win a lovely hardcover copy of A Jane Austen Devotional or A Charles Dickens Devotional (both new from Thomas Nelson; my reviews forthcoming)? I haven’t had a chance to see the books myself yet, but I have it on good authority that these are not just frothy gift books assembled from quotes found in a Google search–they contain substantial excerpts from the respective authors’ works, and they’re theologically solid too.
Here’s how you win: In a comment, send me your favorite quotation from an Austen novel or a Dickens novel (or both, if you’d like to enter both contests), and make sure you identify the novel and the character who speaks it, unless of course it’s the narrator. Then explain in a few sentences why you like it so much. I’ll pick the best entry for each author, and then I’ll arrange to have the book sent to you. Please send me your entries by Monday, January 16. That gives you about a month to reread your favorite novel if necessary. I am prepared to be impressed!
the Dr. Tess blog 
From the end of Emma. The narrator concludes the history of Miss Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley, my favorite Jane Austen couple:
The wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have no taste for finery or parade; and Mrs. Elton, from the particulars detailed by her husband, thought it all extremely shabby, and very inferior to her own. “Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business! Selina would stare when she heard of it.” But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.”
Great quote! Mr. Knightley is probably my favorite man in the Jane Austen canon, and Emma wins me over by the end of the book too. The Austen contest is off to a good start; now we need a Dickens quote . . .
In which Miss Elizabeth accepts an invitation to the Lakes and consoles herself over the loss of Mr. Wickham with admirable humo(u)r:
“‘Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are young men to rocks and mountains? Oh! what hours of transport we shall spend! And when we do return, it shall not be like other travellers, without being able to give one accurate idea of anything. We will know where we have gone—we will recollect what we have seen.'”
Having now been to the Lakes, I have a new appreciation for the heart-healing power of rocks and mountains!
(Thanks for following me, by the way.)
Speaking of favorite Jane Austen couples, I saw this yesterday in the latest issue of Real Simple, in the No-Obligation Book Club section, from a reader named Joan: “Forget Mr. Darcy, from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. He’s a pompous jerk. I would rather swoon over Henry Tilney and Catherine Morland, from Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Tilney knows how to laugh, be gentle with his criticism, and stand up for what is proper and right. He and Catherine are great together.” Wow, Joan. Tell us how you really feel.