” . . . that Marianne found her own happiness in forming [Col. Brandon’s] was equally the persuasion and delight of each observing friend. Marianne could never love by halves; and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband as it had once been to Willoughby.”
Sense & Sensibility, volume 3, chapter 14
Filed under Col. Brandon, Happiness, Love, Marianne, Marriage, Sense and Sensibility
“Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract by her conduct her most favorite maxims. She was born to overcome an affection formed so late in life as at seventeen, and with no sentiment superior to strong esteem and lively friendship, voluntarily to give her hand to another-and that other, a man who had suffered no less than herself under the event of a former attachment, whom, two years before, she had considered too old to be married, and who still sought the constitutional safeguard of a flannel waistcoat!”
Sense & Sensibility, volume 3, chapter 14
More on Marianne and Colonel Brandon in an article I wrote in response to Lori Gottlieb: Would Jane Austen Settle? (I think not, but I also think she would challenge our definition of love.)
Filed under Col. Brandon, Love, Marianne, Marriage, Sense and Sensibility
“…he long thought of Colonel Brandon with envy and of Marianne with regret. But that he was forever inconsolable, that he fled from society, or contracted an habitual gloom of temper, or died of a broken heart, must not be depended on; for he did neither. He lived to exert, and frequently to enjoy himself. His wife was not always out of humour, nor his home always uncomfortable; and in his breed of horses and dogs, and in sporting of every kind, he found no inconsiderable degree of domestic felicity.”
Sense & Sensibility, volume 3, chapter 14
Filed under Col. Brandon, Happiness, Marianne, Sense and Sensibility, Willoughby
“’At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear anything to change them.’”
Marianne to Edward – oh the vanity and certainty of youth!
Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 17
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Filed under Marianne, Sense and Sensibility
“’Colonel Brandon is certainly younger than Mrs. Jennings, but he is old enough to be my father; and if he were ever animated enough to be in love, must have long outlived every sensation of the kind. It is too ridiculous! When is a man to be safe from such wit if age and infirmity will not protect him?’”
Marianne again on Colonel Brandon’s advanced age of thirty-five, reflecting o n his “advanced years and on his forlorn condition of an old bachelor”
Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 8
I think I could put up with Colonel Brandon’s age and infirmity.
I didn’t get to see S&S last night. Between puppy-sitting this weekend, and a deadline this morning (which I missed - ack!), my weekend went by too fast. Hoping to watch it tonight. Did you love it — hate it? I did catch the very beginning today over lunch, and thought the opening scene would be a bit confusing if you didn’t know the story and already know who that was.
Filed under Aging, Col. Brandon, Love, Marianne, Sense and Sensibility, Singleness
“’A woman of seven and twenty,’ said Marianne, after pausing a moment, ‘can never hope to feel or inspire affection again.’”
Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 8
Thank goodness Jane did not believe this!
Filed under Aging, Love, Marianne, Sense and Sensibility
“She new that what Marianne and her mother conjectured one moment, they believed the next: that with them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect. She tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister.
’I do not attempt to deny,’ said she, ‘that I think very highly of him—that I greatly esteem, that I like him.’”
Elinor confronting the expectations of Mrs. Dashwood and Marianne
Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 4
But really, isn’t that the state of women in general? We hope and expect so much, as Darcy reminds us.
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Filed under Elinor, Expectations, Love, Marianne, Sense and Sensibility, Sense vs. Sensibility
“‘Is there a felicity in the world superior to this? Margaret, we will walk here at least two hours.'”
Marianne on her walk with Margaret, when it looks like rain, just before she meets Willoughby
Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 9 (emphasis mine)
Love this little gem of Marianne’s enthusiasm…
Filed under Margaret, Marianne, Nature, Sense and Sensibility
“I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point
coincide with my own. He must enter into all my feelings; the same
books, the same music must charm us both. . . .
Mama, the more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I
shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!”
Marianne
Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 3
Charity Wakefield as Marianne Dashwood. ©BBC 2007 for Masterpiece™
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Filed under Love, Marianne, Men, Sense and Sensibility
“Called a beautiful girl, truth was less violently outraged than usually happens….”
On Marianne Dashwood
Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 10
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Filed under Beauty, Marianne, Sense and Sensibility
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