Jane Austen Quote of the Week 268
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| 'The Three Sisters' from JA Center UK |
I have just found the pleasure of reading Jane Austen’s ‘The Three Sisters’ Juvenilia from Pemberley.
The reading is light and pleasant. There’s a funny thing tho that I found out
about Mary Stanhope, one of the three sisters (Mary, Sophy and Georgiana
Stanhope). So a Mr Watts asked for Mary’s hand in marriage, but she was unsure whether
to accept it or not. He was rich, but she was not very fond of him. Mary’s
mother then (as many other mothers in the Regency Era) threatened her, saying
that if Mary did not give a positive answer by the day after (when Mr Watts was
scheduled for tea with them), he would address the proposal to Mary’s sisters
(Sophy and Georgiana). Then, as Mary narrated to her close friend Fanny,
"The only thing I can think of, my
dear Fanny, is to ask Sophy and Georgiana whether they would have him were he
to make proposals to them, and if they say they would not, I am resolved to
refuse him too, for I hate him more than you can imagine. As for the Duttons,
if he marries one of them, I shall still have the triumph of having refused him first. So, adeiu
my dear Friend --"
That is such a very girlish response to a marriage proposal
from a girl who had almost zero attachment to the said person. I wish that Jane
Austen had actually developed ‘The Three
Sisters’ for a larger novel. I’d love to read more about the Stanhope Sisters.
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