Oscar Wilde was sort of my first love as a young reader. And then I went on to love Jane Austen's wonderful - this sort of comedy coming from her. I mean, all of her books are comic.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I love Oscar Wilde, still the wittiest writer of anyone, dead or living.
But if you read Jane Austen, you know that she had a wicked sense of humor. Not only was she funny, but her early writing was very dark and had a gothic tone to it.
Jane Austen is very amusing.
Oscar Wilde always makes me smile - with respect and admiration. His short stories prove that it is possible to be both sarcastic, even cynical, but deeply compassionate. Just seeing the cover of one of Wilde's books in a bookshop makes me smile.
Ever since I was young, I've read Austen and the Brontes. My friends laugh, but those books are always so tragic and wonderful - those stories, they're just incredible.
I'm sure I've been influenced by every fine writer I've ever read, from Dickens and Austen to Auden and Jane Hirshfield. And also, the short stories of Updike, Cheever, Munro, Alice Adams, and Doris Lessing. And the plays of Oscar Wilde. And paintings by Alice Neel and Matisse.
I grew up reading 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Pride and Prejudice' - girly kind of books.
I suppose comedy is my first love, in a way.
Before I came to England, my favorite authors were P. G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie. I used to devour both.
My favourite authors include Trollope and Dickens.