“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
“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
[Mrs. Weston] “She is loveliness itself. Mr. Knightley, is not she?”
“I have not a fault to find with her person,” he replied. “I think her all you describe. I love to look at her; and I will add this praise, that I do not think her personally vain. Considering how handsome she is, she appears to be little occupied with it; her vanity lies another way.”
Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightley on Emma’s beauty and faults
Emma, volume 1, chapter 5
Filed under Beauty, Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Miss Taylor - Mrs. Weston, Mr. Knightley, Pride
I love this little bit:
“Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old. I have seen a great many lists of her drawing up at various times of books that she meant to read regularly through-and very good lists they were-very well chosen and very neatly arranged-sometimes alphabetically and sometimes by some other rule. The list she drew up when only fourteen-I remember thinking it did her judgement so much credit that I preserved it some time; and I dare say she may have made out a very good list now. But I have done with expecting any course of steady reading from Emma. She will never submit to anything requiring industry and patience and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding.”
Mr. Knightley discussing Emma’s faults with Mrs. Weston, who will not admit them
Emma, volume 1, chapter 5
I think I have made various reading lists of my own over the years…
Filed under Education, Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Miss Taylor - Mrs. Weston, Mr. Knightley, Patience, Reading
“I have no doubt that he will thrive and be a very rich man in time-and his being illiterate and coarse need not disturb us.”
Emma’s backhanded compliment of Robert Martin, the farmer Harriet adores
Emma, volume 1, chapter 4
Filed under Emma, Emma Woodhouse, Harriet Smith, Insults, Men, Money, Robert Martin, Wealth
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