Jane Austen : Bodleian Library : 9781851244645 : 1851244646 : 03 Jul 2017 : "Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend."?from a letter to Cassandra, October 27, 1798   "You express so little anxiety about my being murdered under Ash Park Copse by Mrs. Hulbert's servant, that I have a great mind not to tell you whether I was or not."?from a letter to Cassandra, January 8, 1799   "Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony."?from a letter to Fanny Knight, March 13, 1817   Much loved for the romantic plot lines and wryly amusing social commentary that spring from the pages of Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and her other novels Jane Austen was also a prolific letter writer and penned missives on many subjects. To her sister Cassandra she wrote with candid humor about the effects of the Peninsular War ("How horrible it is to have so many people ki