A few days ago I stumbled across an article online aiming that in the First World War shell-shocked Tommies were sometimes prescribed the novels of Jane Austen as a tonic for their mental problems. Indeed Rudyard Kipling wrote this short story about the phenomenon, published in a collection of his short stories in 1926. It's quite hard to understand the vernacular of the soldiers here, but the attachment of these un-book learned soldiers to Jane and her works as a symbol of England is quite touching.

The story begins with a touching poetical tribute:

Jane lies in Winchester-blessed be her shade!
Praise the Lord for making her, and her for all she made!
And while the stones of Winchester, or Milsom Street, remain.
Glory, love, and honour unto England’s Jane

They revel in the fact that the novels are slow paced: "Why, she was a little old maid ‘oo’d written ‘alf a dozen books about a hundred years ago. ’Twasn’t as if there was anythin’ to ‘em, either. I know. I had to read ‘em. They weren’t adventurous, nor smutty....". But it made a difference to their later lives: "I read all her six books now for pleasure ‘tween times in the shop; an’ it brings it all back-down to the smell of the glue-paint on the screens. You take it from me, Brethren, there’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place. Gawd bless ‘er...".

Worth a look as curiosity. ( )