Jane Austen Quote of the Week – Week 36

This week, the last weekend of 2008, I’d like to pick something from my favourite book ‘Persuasion’ about the inner strength of a woman. No, I’m not talking of Anne Elliot, though she was one mighty woman of her own. This quote is about her friend, Mrs. Smith, who used to be a rather wealthy woman but by the time of Anne’s visit to her humble quarters in Bath, she had become an ill woman of barely any means to live on. As we all know, Jane was very sick when she wrote the last chapters of ‘Persuasion’, and I think she channelled her strength through her descriptions of Mrs. Smith. Yes, I do think that Mrs. Smith resembles Jane Austen in her later days.

Persuasion Volume II Chapter 5:

QUOTE

Anne found in Mrs. Smith the good sense and agreeable manners which she almost ventured to depend on, and a disposition to converse and be cheerful beyond her expectation. Neither the dissipations of the past – and she had lived very much in the world, nor the restrictions of the present; neither sickness nor sorrow seemed to have closed her heart or ruined her spirit.

In the course of a second visit she talked with great openness, and Anne’s astonishment increased. She could scarcely imagine a more cheerless situation in itself than Mrs. Smith’s. She had been very fond of her husband, – she had buried him. She had been used to affluence, – it was gone. She had no child to connect her with life and happiness again, no relations to assist in the arrangement of perplexed affairs, no health to make all the rest supportable./…/Yet, in spite of all this, Anne had reason to believe that [Mrs. Smith] had moments only of languor and depression, to hours of occupation and enjoyment. How could it be? – She watched – observed – reflected – and finally determined that this was not a case of fortitude or of resignation only. – A submissive spirit might be patient, a strong understanding would supply resolution, but here was something more; here was that elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of herself, which was from Nature alone. It was the choicest gift of Heaven; and Anne viewed her friend as one of those instances in which, by a merciful appointment, it seems designed to counter-balance almost every other want.

END OF QUOTE

Now tell me my dearest friends, if Jane Austen was not talking of herself now? As if she said that ‘Although my body is terminally ill now, I am not resigning to despair. Not ever.’

I consider myself very lucky now. Now and then I had to remind myself to take it easy, lest my body will suffer, and will definitely launch a protest that will force me for a bed rest (my Boxing Day was spent in the bed, due to a sudden attack of gastritis, my fault really…). But, just to recall the friendships we have shared in this blog, some of them getting to sisterhood level even… I remind myself that I can make the best of my life. Jane Austen could do that; and though I will never be a great authoress like her, I want to give the best of me as well.


On that note, have a Merry Xmas (once more) and Happy New Year. May 2009 be kind to us, more peaceful and loving, and may our spirits be strengthened to give the best of us to this world.

With lots of love,
Icha

Pic 1. The Wordsworth Classics variant of Persuasion cover, from the Old Grey Pony
Pic 2. A beautiful Xmas and New Year card from our dearest Mariana