I declare, after all, there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!

Caroline Bingley makes this declaration in chapter 11 of Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen gives it a thoroughly inconvenient context for anyone treating it as an uncomplicated celebration of reading. Caroline has chosen her book because of Darcy, is not enjoying it, and soon sets it aside. The enthusiasm is part of an attempt to attract his attention, and the scene exposes the performance.

The quotation therefore has two pleasures. Readers can enjoy the literal praise of books while also recognizing Austen's joke about advertised taste. Announcing a love of literature is easier than remaining interested in the page when the intended audience fails to respond. The distinction extends to any passion used as social evidence. A hobby can be genuinely loved and still become a performance; Austen is especially good at catching the moment when the performance begins to run out of energy.

The cream cat resting beside an open book makes a suitably ambiguous reading companion. It may look entirely devoted to the literary afternoon, although the sofa and sunlight have obvious claims of their own. Caroline would understand the importance of a convincing arrangement. For the human reader, the best answer to the joke is wonderfully simple: once the photograph is taken, there is still the book to enjoy.