Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt. ________ (Jane Austen, Persuasion)



Naomi Chana at Baraita, fresh from her contribution to the public reading of the Summa of Saint Thomas Aquinas, posts The First Lines of One's Ten Favorite Novels Meme. There'd be at least one of Jane Austen's works on everyone's list, of course.