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 xii
... enjoyed the privilege of wealth and consequently had both means and time at their disposal recognised the benefit of contributing to the regulation of society . Government therefore worked on a voluntary basis , the most senior posts ...
... enjoyed the privilege of wealth and consequently had both means and time at their disposal recognised the benefit of contributing to the regulation of society . Government therefore worked on a voluntary basis , the most senior posts ...
Page xiv
... enjoying in almost every aspect of existence . Gentlemen built their houses and laid out their parks according to ... enjoyed by the wealthiest members of society were available in more limited , but still perfectly adequate , ways to ...
... enjoying in almost every aspect of existence . Gentlemen built their houses and laid out their parks according to ... enjoyed by the wealthiest members of society were available in more limited , but still perfectly adequate , ways to ...
Page xvi
... enjoyed writing impromptu verses , for which she had something of a gift : the deft and amusing examples that have survived winningly combine verbal resourcefulness with a pronounced sense of fun . Mr and Mrs Austen had eight children ...
... enjoyed writing impromptu verses , for which she had something of a gift : the deft and amusing examples that have survived winningly combine verbal resourcefulness with a pronounced sense of fun . Mr and Mrs Austen had eight children ...
Page xx
... enjoyed , not the sophisticated places of amusement that developers were busily ( and greedily ) turning resorts into during the early years of the nineteenth century a speculation that she satirises . shrewdly in Sanditon . Sanditon ...
... enjoyed , not the sophisticated places of amusement that developers were busily ( and greedily ) turning resorts into during the early years of the nineteenth century a speculation that she satirises . shrewdly in Sanditon . Sanditon ...
Page 23
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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