Jane Austen Quote of the Week 233

My apologies for the late instalment this week (well, last weekend for most of the world now). I have internet problem at home, and I have to do the quote now at the office (shuuussshhh...).

Emma (Romola Garai) and Knightley (Jonny L. Miller) 2009

Anyway, I love the relationship between Mr Knightley and Emma in ‘Emma’. To me, Mr Knightley is the most realistic gentleman you can have for our current era. He does apply to the Regency era as well, of course. His chemistry with Emma is apparent through their banters.

However, I do have a dose of complain to Mr Knightley, and very critical gentlemen like him. They don’t know how to do romance at all! I mean, take a look at this passage from Chapter 1:

Mr. Knightley, in fact, was one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them: and though this was not particularly agreeable to Emma herself, she knew it would be so much less so to her father, that she would not have him really suspect such a circumstance as her not being thought perfect by every body.

"Emma knows I never flatter her," said Mr. Knightley, "but I meant no reflection on any body. Miss Taylor has been used to have two persons to please; she will now have but one. The chances are that she must be a gainer."

Point taken, Knightley. And it’s actually admirable that you can say those things unrestrained to Emma; God knows the girl needs it. But now and then, Knightley, it’s okay to say something romantic to Emma. And of course when he does, Emma melts right away.

But I take it, a Knightley-type of person will only reserve his romantic comments or gestures just for very special occasions. And for girls, those occasions can be too far in between. People like Knightley need to balance their objective remarks with romantic gestures every now and then. And I don’t mean once in a blue moon or once in a year. It should be more often than that.

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 232

I apologise for being far less organised recently and thank Linda for coming up with a great quote to use today. I believe that it is Mothers Day in the US today so Happy Mother's Day to all mothers from us here at the Becoming Jane blog.

Since this Sunday, May 12, is Mother's Day over here in the U.S., I thought it would be appropriate to see what Jane had to say about Mothers. I found this thoughtful mention in Persuasion, Chapter 17:

While Sir Walter and Elizabeth were assiduously pushing their good fortune in Laura Place, Anne was renewing an acquaintance of a very different description.

She had called on her former governess, and had heard from her of there being an old school-fellow in Bath, who had the two strong claims on her attention of past kindness and present suffering. Miss Hamilton, now Mrs. Smith, had shewn her kindness in one of those periods of her life when it had been most valuable. Anne had gone unhappy to school, grieving for the loss of a mother whom she had dearly loved, feeling her separation from home, and suffering as a girl of fourteen, of strong sensibility and not high spirits, must suffer at such a time; and Miss Hamilton, three years older than herself, but still, from the want of near relations and a settled home, remaining another year at school, had been useful and good to her in a way which had considerably lessened her misery, and could never be remembered with indifference.

As you can see it is very nice to 'remember' our Mothers whilst we have them. I do wish everyone reading this a very Happy Mother's Day.

Yrs aff'ly,

Linda the Librarian

 

Pic: Jane Austen and Mrs Austen

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 231

Surprise!  You get two quotes this week.  I stumbled across the following quote by Edward Thompson (1810-1870) an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  It meant something to me because my daughter and I had just been discussing "trials".

 

Great trials seem to be a necessary preparation for great duties.  It would seem that the more importand the enterprise, the more severe the trial to which the agent is subjected in his preparation.

 

Now this is what Jane has to say about some "trials" which I found in Chapter 38 of Sense and Sensibility:

 

Elinor and Lucy Steel (Sense & Sensibility 2005)

 

 

The next morning brought Elinor a letter by the two-penny post, from Lucy herself.  It was as follows: --

 

Bartlett's Buildings, March.  I hope my dear Miss Dashwood will excuse the liberty I take of writing to her; but I know your friendship for me will make you pleased to hear such a good account of myself and my dear Edward, after all the troubles we have went  through lately, therefore will make no more apologies, but proceed to say that, thank God! though we have suffered dreadfully, we are both quite well now, and as happy s we must always be in one anothers love.  We have had great trials, and great persecutions, but however, at the same time, gratelfully acknowledge many friends, yourself not the least among them, whose great kindness I shall always thankfully remember, as will Edward too, who I have told of it.

 

 

Jane seems to be aware that though we have "great trials" that those trials, though not necessarily preparing us for "great duties," but may possibly have  a 'happy ending'.

 

I found the first quote above by Edward Thompson in a book titled "A Gift of Love" by Perry Tanksley which appears to be quite intriguing due to the subtitle and I can hardly wait to read it in its entirely.  The subtitle for the book is "A Volume of Verse for Young and Old and for All Who have Suffered Adversity."  This is particularly intriguing because my daughter and I were discussing our own personal "trials".  So I leave you with the glad expectation that our 'great trials' will prepare us for our 'great duties'.

 

Yrs aff'ly,

Linda the Librarian

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 230

I have recently started a new job and although the following quote does not match how I feel some of the time, it is definitely how I wish to be all of the time.

In chapter 31 of Pride and Prejudice Colonel Fitzwilliam reminds Elizabeth that she has promised to play the piano. She begins to play and after a short time Lady Catherine begins speaking to her nephew. Mr Darcy moves towards the piano and positions himself so he can view Elizabeth playing.  She says:

“You mean to frighten me, Mr. Darcy, by coming in all this state to hear me? But I will not be alarmed though your sister does play so well. There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.”

I wonder whether Jane saw herself in Elizabeth - a courageos, independent woman - or infact she also was insecure at times and had a real desire to be strong with every hint of intimidation.

Pic: Elizabeth Bennet's courage

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 229

Since my Jane Austen quote of the Week No. 224, I have done some more research on the subject of the slave trade, mainly due to a friend mentioning Sir Thomas of Mansfield Park.

I found this in Chapter 3:

 

Fanny Price (Frances O'Connor) and Sir Thomas Bertram (Harold Pinter), MP 1999

 

 

These opinions had been hardly canvassed a year before another event arose of such importance in the family, as might fairly claim some place in the thoughts and conversation of the ladies. Sir Thomas found it expedient to go to Antigua himself, for the better arrangement of his affairs, and he took his eldest son with him, in the hope of detaching him from some bad connexions at home. They left England with the probability of being nearly a twelvemonth absent.

 

My friend told us about a new book titled "Sugar in the Blood" that got my interest. So thereafter I searched the Pemberley site for information and found a treasure trove that is so extensive that I will be studying for years to come. I shall have to complete my education. It amazes me how much I didn't know. So happy hunting everyone.

 

Yrs aff'ly,

Linda the Librarian

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 228

We haven't done Mansfield Park for a while, so I thought of pulling something from MP. I found this one below, and although I wasn't melancholic or particularly sad today (I'm a bit upbeat, actually), this quote actually can speak volume when the condition is right. Mansfield Park, chapter 46, quoted from Pemberley.com:

"There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow. Employment, even melancholy, may dispel melancholy."

Frances O'Connor as Fanny Price (MP 1999)

It can be true, but we must take it with a grain of salt. Too often, we modern people drown ourselves in employment, or our career, to ignore something that is not balance in our lives. It should not be like that, I think. I think Jane's quote below is good for temporary distraction. But when the sorrow is already too deep, I think one must go deep within to deal with the feeling, instead of ignoring it and turning to our career for a refuge.

Thoughts?

Jane Austen Quote of the week 227

I have used this quote before back in August 2008 but I thought it was particularly apt this special weekend of Easter.
From chapter 20 of Persuasion Anne is describing her experience of visiting Lyme which is also rather suitable because I am travelling near there this weekend.

The last few hours were certainly very painful," replied Anne; "but when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure. One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering, which was by no means the case at Lyme. We were only in anxiety and distress during the last two hours, and previously there had been a great deal of enjoyment. So much novelty and beauty! I have travelled so little, that every fresh place would be interesting to me; but there is real beauty at Lyme; and in short," with a faint blush at some recollections, "altogether my impressions of the place are very agreeable."

I was with friends this evening and we were talking about places we havent liked being during our lives. I lived somewhere for three years and I really did not enjoy my time there, I could consider my reaction to it at the time as suffering. But ultimately we can learn alot when we are suffering and I think that is why this quote stands out for me, when we are able to get through the difficult time and survive, that suffering can turn into an enormous sense of achievement and often generate quite a connection with the place in which we endured such negative feelings. 

Anyway Easter is a time for remembering how lucky we are and I wish you all a Happy Easter and an enjoyable weekend with your loved ones. 

Pic: Anne Elliot Lyme Regis

Tom Lefroy Quote of the Week 29

Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy), from DokinaCZ

 

I recently stumbled across the following article and I simply had to pass it on to you.  The title is:  "Who was the real Thomas Lefroy?" written by one of his descendants.  Here is the first paragraph which explains what it is about:

 

As reported recently in the Longford Leader, the new film about the life of Jane Austen, "Becoming Jane", documents the famous author's relationship with Thomas Lefroy, who went on to purchase Carrigglas Manor. While the film concentrates on Austen, there is also much interest in Mr Lefroy's background and how he came to own Carrigglas. Here, in an article written by Lt Colonel Patrick Lefroy MA MBE, a descendent of Lefroy, for the 1983 Longford Historical Society Journal, we look at Lefroy, the man who was said to be the inspiration for Darcy- one of Austen's most famous characters.

 

You may read the rest of the article HERE.  What I really like about the article is that he seems to be of the same mind as I am about the Tom/Jane 'affair'.  Also, we get a rather detailed look at Tom's life.

 

Yrs aff'ly,

Linda the Librarian

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 226

Have you ever been agitated, vexed out because you sent a rather long letter (read: email, SMS), and yet received a very short reply instead? Well, I have, more than several occasions. Hence, I find it very amusing when this quote popped up from our BJF old archives. Thanks to Michelle (wherever you are now, M, take care...) for providing us with this quote back in 2009.

Mollands.net

From Jane's letter to Cassandra, dated 24 December 1798 (click here for the Pemberley archive):

"You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve."

So there you go. Whenever you receive a very short answer to your lengthy (traditional) letter, email, SMS etc, just remember this: Cassandra Austen had the same fate too! Although I wouldn't say that Jane's letter to her was short at all...

I love you, Jane...

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 225

I was reading some of Jane Austen's letters to her niece Fanny Knight and the following quote grabbed my attention. It is taken from letter 84 written on 23 March 1817.

"Do not oblige him to read any more. Have mercy on him, tell him the truth, and make him an apology. He and I should not in the least agree, of course, in our ideas of novels and heroines. Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked; but there is some very good sense in what he says, and I particularly respect him for wishing to think well of all young ladies; it shows an amiable and a delicate mind."

This week I have come across some people who are 'pictures of perfection' and it has left me with that feeling that Jane Austen describes. I felt guilty but upon reading this it made me feel much better and more normal!

Pic: Perfection

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 224

 

Statue of Wilberforce at Yorkshire

This past week I had a "light-bulb" moment after viewing the movie "Amazing Grace" about William Wilberforce's campaign against the British slave trade which was abolished in 1807.  I began to realize exactly what that "trade" was all about, and it wasn't 'pretty'.  This movie actually happened during Jane's life time and she knew of the writer Hannah More.

 

I was checking James Austen's periodical, "The Loiterer" that I put on line, for a quote and ran across this in Issue 23 subtitled "Vexations attending the pursuit, and possession of wealth, in a letter from Indicus.":

 

The Son of a Neighbour (very few years older than myself) about this time returned from the East-Indies, with one of those sudden fortunes, which never fail to draw upon their possessors the admiration of the Vulgar, the envy of the Weak, and the pity of the Wise. — As we had been formerly Schoolfellows, and our Families were still upon terms of great intimacy, I was one of the first who were invited to a magnificent Villa, he had just purchased, on the banks of the Thames, where one fortnight spent amidst the luxury of fashionable dissipation, and the blaze of Oriental Grandeur, completely turned my head, and determined me to waste no more time in this dirty Island, but to go at once to that Country, were riches were so easily to be acquired. It was to no purpose, my Friends attempted to oppose this resolution: it had so entirely taken possession of my mind, that it haunted my very Dreams. Sometimes I found myself carried in an elegant Palanquin, attended by a long train of Blacks; and at others inclined at my ease on a rich Sopha, while my careful Slaves drove away the Mosquitoes with their fans. I now settled the accounts with my Circars, now counted imaginary Lacks, and admired the lustre of ideal Diamonds.

 

My point being that James Austen used the terms "Blacks" and "Slaves".  So the Austens must have had some idea about that situation.  However, I am not at all sure what James means with the term "Lacks".

 

The movie left me in tears and consternation at the ignorance of us "Southerners" (in the U.S.) of the real circumstances of the People of Africa.  I am here to declare that slavery is wrong and evil.

 

The complete Issue No. 23 gives us a good example of what should and should NOT be done with wealth.  You may read it HERE.

 

Yrs aff'ly,

Linda the Librarian

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 223

Thanks to Mariana we have been reminded of a great quote in Pride and Prejudice Chapter 5 when there is a discussion about Mr Bingley's fondness for Jane Bennet.

"Oh!—you mean Jane, I suppose—because he danced with her twice. To be sure that did seem as if he admired her—indeed I rather believe he did—I heard something about it—but I hardly know what—something about Mr. Robinson."

"Perhaps you mean what I overheard between him and Mr. Robinson; did not I mention it to you? Mr. Robinson's asking him how he liked our Meryton assemblies, and whether he did not think there were a great many pretty women in the room, and which he thought the prettiest? and his answering immediately to the last question—"Oh! the eldest Miss Bennet beyond a doubt, there cannot be two opinions on that point.''

On January 8 1796 Tom Lefroy invited Jane Austen to dance not two, but three times, at the ball. This is interesting based on Jane's words in Pride and Prejudice, written between 1796 and 1797 (initially called First Impressions and later being changed to Pride and Prejudice).

I wonder if this exchange is based on her own personal experience and perception around the implications of Tom's invite to dance three times with her. It is definitely something to ponder.

Pic: Mr Bingley and Jane Bennet

Jane Austen Quote of the Week 222

Regency courtship, from Austenauthors

This week’s quote is about Valentine’s Day, which happened on last Thursday. It was taken from Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 6, spoken by Mr Darcy:

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment.”

Just like any other Austen quotes, I originally thought that this quote was just applicable to the Regency or period time. At the most, the 1920s (aaahhh, Downton Abbey!) or 1950s. But apparently, it IS still very applicable today!

(I apologise in advance if this post is rather insensitive. I’m trying to make it more appropriate, but if I still offend someone, I do apologise. It was kindly meant.)

Let’s just check our dating system today. No, I don’t mean our Gregorian calendar system. I mean our modern courting system. When we were teenagers, we don’t care about whether we are going to be with our sweetheart forever and ever. Well, perhaps we do. But we care less. We just want to be with the sweetheart, watching movies together, eating ice cream at the canteen together, doing homework together... ah, how sweet life is!

Then we are at our 20s. Slowly slowly, we start to think if our chosen boy/girlfriend will stick with us through college and hopefully walk with us on the isle. In our 30s, with a horde of our friends already getting married, some already having kids, we look at the clock and start to feel panic. Many of us don’t want to just court any man or woman available; that would be improper. But we want relationship, and a stable one at that. Preferably one that leads us to the aisle with a fluffy dress of our colour choice for ladies. So we start courting a guy or a girl with the hope that he or she is REALLY the one, this time around.

Approaching the 40s, we would fine-tune our search engine. We meet a guy or a girl we are attracted to, and immediately, in practically a nano-second, we wonder if it is possible for us to be with them. Forget if they like us or not. If they don’t, then end of story. But if they do like us too, what are the chances of us walking the isle with him or her? Or at least, doing a co-habitation, for those who choose not to believe in marriage? 

As I quote one of my female friends, ‘I’m looking for a husband, not just a flirtation.’ Point.

So, Mr Darcy’s words are still applicable here. “A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment.” A lady’s imagination can be very rapid indeed. And for modern gentlemen over 30, it might also be the case nowadays.

I learned two days ago when I was watching Al Jazeera, that it takes a huge leap from that first flirtation to a 50 years of happy marriage.  Agree. But still, we have to take the first step.

May you have your first steps taken correctly, my dear friends. Belated Happy Valentine. Love yourself first, and then love others! (but it’s okay to share the chocolate with them; you don’t have to eat all the chocolate by yourself)