Quote of the Week 43 - Valentine Edition - by Rachel
As its Valentines Day today I prepared my quote before I departed on my travels to reflect this special day. I hope that you are all celebrating in style.....single or attached!
My quote is taken from Persuasion (Chapter 23), in which Anne and Captain Harville's discuss the male versus the female heart. Captain Wentworth overhears Anne's dialogue, which leads to the famous love letter (quoted earlier on the blog) and the rest is history! I know that we have used many Persuasion quotes lately but they are all so fantastic and etch in our brains with permanent marker due to their brilliant construction and delivery, and of course their connotations. Calling Jane a special lady is an understatement.
" 'Oh!' cried Anne eagerly, 'I hope I do justice to all that is felt by you, and by those who resemble you. God forbid that I should undervalue the warm and faithful feelings of any of my fellow-creatures! I should deserve utter contempt if I dared to suppose that true attachment and constancy were known only by woman. No, I believe you capable of everything great and good in your married lives. I believe you equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as--if I may be allowed the expression--so long as you have an object. I mean while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.' "
"She could not immediately have uttered another sentence; her heart was too full, her breath too much oppressed."
But I particularly love the lines :
"I mean while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone." "She could not immediately have uttered another sentence; her heart was too full, her breath too much oppressed."
I feel that this statement is so so representative of the love between Jane and Tom, I am so completely sure of it. "Her heart was too full"- As Jane was writing this, I KNOW that she was referring to her own feelings and memories.
I have chosen pictures from the 2007 tv version of Persuasion as I like Sally Hawkin's Anne and Rupert Penry- Jones' Wentworth. I know that the other ladies on this site may disagree but that allows a greater variety in pictures!
Happy Valentines Day!!
Pic 1: Sally Hawkins Anne + Rupert Penry-Jones' Wentworth from visitbath
Pic 2: Anne Hathaway + James McAvoy in: abc
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5 comments:
I, too, am a huge fan of the 2007 Hawkins/Penry-Jones Persuasion, along with the 1995 Root/Hinds version. Um, hello, it's Persuasion. What is there not to like?? :D
"loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone"
I feel the same, dearest Rachel. When I read this statement, I think of Jane's letter written almost 3 years after she met Tom Lefroy. We don't know for sure if they've met again in all this time, between January 1796 and November 1798, when she wrote the letter, but the tone, the words about Tom, even if only in few lines, they make me feel that Jane is the one that loved longest when hope was gone, that she was referring to her own feelings and memories in Persuasion, more then in any other book.
Wishing you all a very happy Valentine's Day! -filled with Love and Hope
Hugs
Of course Jane is reflecting on her own feelings towards Tom. There is no other way! I really need to read Persuasion again and see the film. I'm totally in love with the 2007-version as I have not seen the one from 95. But I think I have to, just to compare the two.
Happy Valentine's day to all!
Hugs and kisses
Oh, Maria and Éomer,
Happy Valentine's Day to you too. I checked your Blog and saw the video with Éomer and can't believe that he already speaks English! I understood his baby talk perfectly! I'm so silly.
Love from
Linda the Librarian
Great quotes, Rachel! And thanks a lot Michelle for posting it, I am as usual flat out from the fieldwork this season. And though I love Rachel's Persuasion quote this time (what is NOT to love in Persuasion? I agree, Blarney Girl!), I also am very fond of her opening marks:
I hope that you are all celebrating in style.....single or attached!
YES. Who says that Valentine is only for those with partners? I love my friends and I celebrated the Valentine last night with them! Can't do much without friends, eh?
And Michelle honey, your classical Becoming Jane picture is a must for this Valentine. I know that Valentine might not be a popular event during the Georgian era, but perhaps Jane Austen... if she was aware of it... thought of Tom Lefroy a bit? In a fond way, I hope...
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