Jane Austen and LeisureJane Austen's novels portray a leisured society of gentlemen and ladies who do not need to work. Even the minority of clergymen, soldiers and sailors - men with professions - are almost never seen working. Jane Austen herself, despite responsibility for some domestic tasks, wrote as a woman of leisure. Yet leisure, the distinguishing mark of a gentleman, was not meant to be an excuse for idleness. The proper use of leisure to fulfil duties, to read and to think, and above all to pursue social relations in a world where family and marriage for the propertied was of central importance, was a vital test of character. |
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Page vii
... Fanny Knight , aged twelve , watercolour by Cassandra Austen , c . 1805 . ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust ) 3 The Cross Bath , Bath , engraving by H. S. Storer , 1818. Jane Austen referred to its being painted in a letter of October 1813 ...
... Fanny Knight , aged twelve , watercolour by Cassandra Austen , c . 1805 . ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust ) 3 The Cross Bath , Bath , engraving by H. S. Storer , 1818. Jane Austen referred to its being painted in a letter of October 1813 ...
Page xvii
... Fanny . The Austens ' fourth son , Henry Thomas , also went to St John's College and on leaving was commissioned as a Lieuten- ant in the Oxfordshire Militia , later setting up in business as an army agent and banker in London ; when in ...
... Fanny . The Austens ' fourth son , Henry Thomas , also went to St John's College and on leaving was commissioned as a Lieuten- ant in the Oxfordshire Militia , later setting up in business as an army agent and banker in London ; when in ...
Page xix
... Fanny's father , has had inactivity forced on him by his health but has put it to no very good use , and his wife lacks the energy to impose a proper discipline on her house and family . Yet at the centre of the novel stand the three ...
... Fanny's father , has had inactivity forced on him by his health but has put it to no very good use , and his wife lacks the energy to impose a proper discipline on her house and family . Yet at the centre of the novel stand the three ...
Page xx
... Fanny ) are quiet , solitary and instructive . Jane Austen makes use of them all to bring people together or keep them apart , as occasion demands ; to further the plot and articulate its themes ; and above all to reflect facets of her ...
... Fanny ) are quiet , solitary and instructive . Jane Austen makes use of them all to bring people together or keep them apart , as occasion demands ; to further the plot and articulate its themes ; and above all to reflect facets of her ...
Page 6
... Fanny's headache . Only old - fashioned or unsophisti- cated people persisted in treating it as a full meal , as Mrs Philips in Pride and Prejudice does when she promises her nieces and Mr Collins a nice comfortable noisy game of ...
... Fanny's headache . Only old - fashioned or unsophisti- cated people persisted in treating it as a full meal , as Mrs Philips in Pride and Prejudice does when she promises her nieces and Mr Collins a nice comfortable noisy game of ...
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Common terms and phrases
amusement assemblies aunt Austen-Leigh ball Bath Bennet brother Captain Wentworth cards Cassandra characters charade Charles Chawton Country Dancing course daughter delightful Donwell Edmund eighteenth century Elton Emma Emma Watson Emma's Fanny Burney feel Frank Churchill gardens give Godmersham Harriet Henry heroine Highbury hunting Ibid James Edward Jane Austen Jane Austen Society Jane Fairfax John kind Knightley Knightley's Lady Bertram later Lefroy leisure letter lived London look Lord Lybbe Powys Lyme Mansfield Park Marianne marry Martha Lloyd Mary Crawford Mary Lloyd Miss Bates moral needlework never niece night Northanger Abbey novel party perhaps pianoforte play pleasure poem popular Pride and Prejudice resort Sanditon scene seaside Sense and Sensibility sister social Steventon taste theatre theatricals thing Thomas Tilney Tom Bertram verse Weston wife woman Woodhouse writing young ladies