“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
“Where people are really attached, poverty itself is wealth.”
Northanger Abbey, volume 1, chapter 15
Alas, if only Isabella knew the truth of her words!
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Filed under Isabella Thorpe, Money, Money and Marriage, Northanger Abbey, Poverty, 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
“Who can be in doubt of what followed? When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other’s ultimate comfort. This may be bad morality to conclude with, but I believe it to be truth; and if such parties succeed, how should a Captain Wentworth and an Anne Elliot, with the advantage of maturity of mind, consciousness of right, and one independent fortune between them, fail of bearing down every opposition?”
Persuasion, volume 2, chapter 12
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Filed under Anne Elliot, Capt. Wentworth, Marriage, Money, Money and Marriage, Persuasion
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
“I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly; I do not like to have people throw themselves away; but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage.”
Mary Crawford
Mansfield Park, volume 1, chapter 4
Filed under Mansfield Park, Marriage, Mary Crawford, Money, Money and Marriage
“It would be an excellent match, for he was rich, and she was handsome. . . . she was always anxious to get a good husband for every pretty girl.”
busybody Mrs. Jennings on why she thinks Marianne and Colonel Brandon should get together
Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 8
Filed under Beauty, Col. Brandon, Marianne, Marriage, Money, Money and Marriage, Mrs. Jennings, Sense and Sensibility, Wealth
“Such were Elizabeth Elliot’s sentiments and sensations; such the cares to alloy, the agitations to vary, the sameness and the elegance, the prosperity and the nothingness of her scene of life. . .”
Persuasion, volume 1, chapter 1
I love that phrase-“the prosperity and the nothingness.”
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Filed under Elizabeth Elliot, Money, Persuasion, Wealth
“While Lady Elliot lived, there had been method, moderation, and economy, which had just kept him within his income; but with her had died all such right-mindedness, and from that period he had been constantly exceediing it. It had not been possible for him to spend less: he had done nothing but what Sir Walter Elliot was imperiously called on to do; but blameless as he was, he was not only growing dreadfully in debt, but was hearing of it so often, that it became vain to attempt concealing it longer.”
Persuasion, volume 1, chapter 1
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Filed under Debt, Economy, Lady Elliot, Money, Persuasion, Sir Walter Elliot
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