“One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, every thing in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.”
Miss Lucas on Mr. Darcy, after first meeting him at the neighborhood ball
Pride and Prejudice, Vol 1, Ch 5
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They were in fact very fine ladies . . . but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank; and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others.
Of Bingley’s sisters
Pride and Prejudice Vol. 1, Ch. 4
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“I am tolerably glad to hear that Edward’s income is so good a one-as glad as I can at anybody’s being rich besides You & me.”
letter to Cassandra
January 8, 1799 [17]
Edward was Jane’s dear brother who was adopted by wealthy cousins. Cassandra was staying with him at his gorgeous estate Godmersham, in Kent, when this letter was written.
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“’What have wealth or grandeur to do with happiness?’” [Marianne]
‘Grandeur has but little,’ said Elinor, ‘but wealth has much to do with it.’
‘Elinor, for shame!’ said Marianne; ‘money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it. Beyond a competence, it can afford no real satisfaction as far as mere self is concerned.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Elinor, smiling, ‘we may come to the same point. Your competence and my wealth are very much alike, I dare say; and without them, as the world goes now, we shall both agree that every kind of external comfort must be wanting. Your ideas are only more noble than mine. Come, what is your competence?’
‘About eighteen hundred or two thousand a year; not more than that.’
Elinor laughed. ‘Two thousand a year! One is my wealth! I guessed how it would end.’”
Elinor & Marianne discussing with Edward the need of money for happiness
Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 17 [emphasis mine]
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“But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.”
Mansfield Park, volume 1, chapter 1
Oh, how true!
Filed under Beauty, Mansfield Park, Men, Money, Wealth
Apparently so!
“If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow.”
What Edmund Bertram thinks to himself about Mr. Rushworth
Mansfield Park, volume 1, chapter 4
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“The Rich are always respectable.”
letter to Cassandra
June 22, 1808 [53]
Jane was joking (as always), because she had just received a gift of money from her brother Edward’s adoptive mother (it’s complicated…), Mrs. Knight.
“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
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“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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“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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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