Jane Austen Quote of the Day

To wish was to hope

"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. 

The measure of a man?

“'Brandon is just the kind of man,’ said Willoughby one day when they were talking of him together, 'whom everybody speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to.’”

Sense & Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 10

Then again, Willoughby is the kind of boy who gets girls pregnant and leaves them to fend for themselves, disgraced and alone in the world.

David Morissey as Colonel Brandon.  ©BBC 2007 for Masterpiece™

On walking the high downs

"'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...

I require so much!

"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™

A beautiful girl

Today's quote is taken from Jane Austen Today.  Ms. Place heard it on a Sense & Sensibility podcast she found through the listening sidebar on Old Grey Pony.  How's that for roundabout?

"Called a beautiful girl, truth was less violently outraged than usually happens...."

On Marianne Dashwood
Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 10

Which makes me long for more

"You will be glad to hear that every Copy of S.&S. is sold & that it has brought me £140--besides the Copyright, if that should ever be of any value.--I have now therefore written myself into £250.--which only makes me long for more."

letter to her brother Frank about the success of Sense and Sensibility
July 6, 1813 [86]

I, um, long for more!  Actually, I would be thrilled just to have enough to be able to afford health insurance. Ugh.

An author's hopes

"I cannot help hoping that many will feel themselves obliged to buy it.  I shall not mind imagining it a disagreeable Duty to them, so as they do it."

letter to Cassandra, on the release of the second edition of Sense & Sensibility
November 6, 1813 [96]

This makes me laugh!

I can no more forget it...

Well, the wait has begun!  My book should be shipping from the printer any day now, which means that I'll be jumping every time there's a delivery, even if I know it probably won't get here for a couple of weeks.  So hard to believe that the release date is around the corner.  In honor of that, some thoughts from Jane this week on writing.

"I am never too busy to think of S&S.  I can no more forget it, than a mother can forget her suckling child . . ."

on Sense & Sensibility
letter to Cassandra
April 25, 1811 [71]

View from the train of the countryside north of Exeter, where S&S is set.

Marianne's opinion of Edward

"I think him everything that is worthy and amiable."

Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 4

Marianne did not know how much she would come to prize "worthy and amiable" over romantic and good-looking.

I require so much!

Ack!  Monday is a day for running late it seems.

Here is one of my favorites:

"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!"

Sense and Sensibility, volume 1, chapter 3