“Every letter from her is read forty times over; her compliments to all friends go round and round again; and if she does but send her aunt the pattern of a stomacher, or knit a pair of garters for her grandmother, one hears of nothing else for a month. I wish Jane Fairfax very well; but she tires me to death.”
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 10. Emma uses hyperbolic language when talking about Jane Fairfax, her bitchy comments emphasizing her dislike of her. They come in response to Harriet asking Emma if she is acquainted with Miss Bates’s niece. This is the first time in the novel that Jane Fairfax is referenced.