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 ix
... hand of Dibdin's " The Soldier's Adieu ' . ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust ) 130 Title page to Thomas Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing ( 1808 ) . 150 Page of directions from Thomas Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing ( 1808 ) ...
... hand of Dibdin's " The Soldier's Adieu ' . ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust ) 130 Title page to Thomas Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing ( 1808 ) . 150 Page of directions from Thomas Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing ( 1808 ) ...
Page xiv
... hand - coloured print was , it might be said , the artistic medium of the middle class . Subscriptions to concerts or places at the theatre were by no means beyond the reach of comparatively modest pockets ; and if a family's own stock ...
... hand - coloured print was , it might be said , the artistic medium of the middle class . Subscriptions to concerts or places at the theatre were by no means beyond the reach of comparatively modest pockets ; and if a family's own stock ...
Page xv
... hand , the individualistic pleasure principle of traditional England and , on the other , the regulatory impulses of an alliance of industry , religion and the law.3 The effects of this were felt , of course , largely by the lower ...
... hand , the individualistic pleasure principle of traditional England and , on the other , the regulatory impulses of an alliance of industry , religion and the law.3 The effects of this were felt , of course , largely by the lower ...
Page xviii
... hand the kind of life she was to describe in Mansfield Park . Like the rest of her family , she read a great deal , particularly novels ; her engagement with literature , and a keen relish for burlesque , encouraged her to begin writing ...
... hand the kind of life she was to describe in Mansfield Park . Like the rest of her family , she read a great deal , particularly novels ; her engagement with literature , and a keen relish for burlesque , encouraged her to begin writing ...
Page 11
... hand , has much to preoccupy him , and it is generally his evenings that he spends at Hartfield : the fact that he does pay a visit in the morning , early on in the novel , is a clue to his feelings for Emma . Much more typical is his ...
... hand , has much to preoccupy him , and it is generally his evenings that he spends at Hartfield : the fact that he does pay a visit in the morning , early on in the novel , is a clue to his feelings for Emma . Much more typical is his ...
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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