JANE AUSTEN's 250th Birthday Party
Join us for a 250-Year Toast to Truth, Wit & Mr. Darcy
Monday, December 15, 2025
5:00 PM 6:00 PM
Blue Heron Books
High Falls, NY
She may not be able to join us in person, but Jane will absolutely be with us in spirit :) as we gather to celebrate 250 years of one of literature's sharpest wits and most beloved storytellers.
Join us for an evening devoted to discussing Jane Austen's best-known novels, with a particular focus on the incomparable Pride and Prejudice. Whether you're team Darcy, team Elizabeth, or just here for the cutting social commentary and perfect one-liners, this celebration is for you.
Austen scholar Danielle Spratt will be leading our discussion and festivities as we raise a glass (or teacup!) to one of the Great Women Thinkers: Jane Austen. We'll dive into what makes her work so endlessly re-readable, why we're still obsessed with her characters 250 years later, and how a woman writing from a small English village managed to capture universal truths about love, class, family, and finding your people.
Come ready to share your favorite Austen moments, debate which adaptation reigns supreme, and toast to a woman who understood the human heart better than just about anyone. As Jane herself wrote: "If I loved you less, I may be able to talk about it more." Jane knows what's uppppp.
All Austen lovers welcome—whether you've read everything she wrote or you're just Austen-curious. Let's celebrate this literary icon together!
Grab a copy of your favorite Jane Austen title below!
Danielle Spratt is an associate professor of English at California State University, Northridge, specializing in eighteenth-century British literature with a particular focus on Jane Austen. She is co-author of Engaging the Age of Jane Austen: Public Humanities in Practice and directs Faculty Engaged Practices and Service Learning at CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Spratt’s research explores Austen’s works within their social and cultural contexts, and she is committed to integrating scholarly inquiry with community-based learning and public humanities initiatives.