My personal focus in this group read is Jane Austen's unique and almost indefineable sense of humor, quite unlike any other writer. (Eng Lit majors out there: what do you call it??)

Scarcely are we past page one when this little devastating phrase skewering Sir Walter Elliot appears:

".....He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion....."

Do you think she doesn't want anyone to like Sir Walter right off the get-go, so as to emphasize the contrast of his inferiorities against the superiorities of his second daughter?