“You will be an old maid! and that’s so dreadful!” [Harriet]
“Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.” [Emma]
Emma, volume 1, chapter 10
Filed under Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Harriet Smith, Money, Poverty, Singleness, Wealth
“Where little minds belong to rich people in authority, I think they have a knack of swelling out, till they are quite as unmanageable as great ones.”
Emma on the small-minded Churchills
Emma, volume 1, chapter 18
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Filed under Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Money, Mrs. Churchill, Pride, Wealth
“He had made his fortune, bought his house, and obtained his wife; and was beginning a new period of existence, with every probability of greater happiness than in any yet passed through.”
of Mr. Weston
Emma, volume 1, chapter 2
Of Mr. Weston’s first wife. Love this…
“Though she had one sort of spirit, she had not the best. She had
resolution enough to pursue her own will in spite of her brother, but
not enough to refrain from unreasonable regrets at that brother’s
unreasonable anger, nor from missing the luxuries of her former home.”
Emma, volume 1, chapter 2
Filed under Character description, Emma, Money, Money and Marriage, Mr. Weston, Regret
Why is it everyone likes Miss Bates so much?
“Her daughter [Miss Bates] enjoyed a most uncommon degree of popularity for a woman neither young, handsome, rich, nor married. Miss Bates stood in the very worst predicament in the world for having much of the public favour; and she had no intellectual superiority to make atonement to herself or frighten those who might hate her into outward respect. She had never boasted either beauty or cleverness. Her youth had passed without distinction, and her middle of life was devoted to the care of a failing mother and the endeavor to make a small income go as far as possible. And yet she was a happy woman, a woman whom no one named without goodwill. It was her own universal goodwill and contented temper which worked such wonders. She loved everybody, was interested in everybody’s happiness, quick-sighted to everybody’s merits; thought herself a most fortunate creature, and surrounded with blessings in such an excellent mother and so many good neighbors and friends and a home that wanted for nothing. The simplicity and cheerfulness of her nature, her contented and grateful spirit, were a recommendation to everybody and a mine of felicity to herself.”
Emma, volume 1, chapter 3
Filed under Beauty, Character description, Contentment (or not), Emma, Happiness, Miss Bates, Money, Popularity, Poverty
“I suppose there may be a hundred different ways of being in love.”
Emma, on thinking Mr. Elton far too gallant
Emma, volume 1, chapter 6
I’m taking the next week off to linger and gaze at the sea, glory in the ocean, and sit dangerously outdoors! Happy Memorial Day to all my U.S. readers. Enjoy the wonderful long weekend! The blog will be back on June 2.
Filed under Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Love, Mr. Elton
“It is never safe to sit out of doors, my dear.”
Mr. Woodhouse, to Emma regarding her portrait of Harriet who is so dangerously sitting outdoors!
Emma, volume 1, chapter 6
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Filed under Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Mr. Woodhouse, Nature
“She had always wanted to do everything, and had made more progress, both in drawing and music, than many might have done with so little labour as she would ever submit to. She played and sang — and drew in almost every style; but steadiness had always been wanting; and in nothing had she approached the degree of excellence which she would have been glad to command and ought not to have failed of. She was not much deceived as to her own skill either as an artist or a musician, but she was not unwilling to have others deceived, or sorry to know her reputation for accomplishment often higher than it deserved.”
Of Emma, as she begins Harriet’s portrait
Emma, volume 1, chapter 6
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Filed under Education, Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Pride
“I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for. It would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object. I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good.”
Mr. Knightley
Emma, volume 1, chapter 5
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Filed under Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Mr. Knightley, Uncertainty in love
“Where shall we see a better daughter or a kinder sister or a truer friend? . . . She will make no lasting blunder; where Emma errs once, she is in the right a hundred times.”
Such words of praise for Emma from Mrs. Weston
Emma, volume 1, chapter 5
I only hope that none of my blunders will be lasting.
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Filed under Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Family, Friendship, Miss Taylor - Mrs. Weston
The Jane Austen Guide to Life: Thoughtful Lessons for the Modern Woman (May, 2012)
A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love, and Faith