#I think Mrs. Morland is the best mother

[bethanydelleman]

Could you do a ranking on the mothers-in-law of JA novels, from worst to best?

This is going to be fun!!! Here are the hero and heroine moms ranked as mother-in-laws... Okay, realized that two entire novels are devoid of MILs (Emma and Persuasion), so I'm throwing mother figures Mrs. Weston, Sophia Croft, and Lady Russell in too. Also, I started with best:

1. Mrs. Dashwood: fully prepared to love anyone her daughters love immediately. Judicious in her visiting, so friendly and kind she can break through any introverts shell, A+ MlL

2. Sophia Croft: ships her brother with happiness. Total badass who is never boring at a party. Welcoming and kind and will show Anne the captain-wife ropes (probably including some literal ropes...)

3. Mrs Morland: ready to welcome and forgive anyone kind to her daughter; sensible and practical. Her only demerit is insisting on the General's consent. I'm sure Henry loves going to their house for visits.

4. Mrs. Weston: loves Emma like a daughter and a best friend. Already has an amicable and equal relationship with Mr. Knightley. They will all go along charmingly. Only problem is her overly friendly husband who might invite the Eltons!

5. Lady Russell: Yes, she was prejudiced against Wentworth at first, but she admits she was wrong. She loves Anne, is the only half-sensible person at Kellynch, and she shares Anne's interests. Sure to be a welcome relief from Sir Walter and Elizabeth whenever the Wentworths visit.

6. Lady Bertram: she's... there. Nothing very positive in her behaviour but nothing negative either. Maybe gifted Fanny a pug.

7. Mrs. Price: Positives- lives very far away, will most likely leave you alone. Negatives- everything else.

8. Mrs. Bennet: Inspired the Bingleys to move hundreds of miles away, but she does feed you really well when you visit. Makes her daughter want to sink into the floor to get away.

9. Mrs. Ferrars: the only positive is that she may randomly give you £200. Cruel, falsely charming, probably still has Edward written out of the will even though Robert committed the real crime (marrying Lucy Steele).

Honorable Mention: Mrs. Musgrove has basically adopted Anne by the end of Persuasion and she is a stellar MIL, the whole family is so welcoming and loving. She is tied with Mrs. Morland.

Dishonorable Mention: Lady Catherine is the novel's stand-in for the orphan Mr. Darcy's family. We know that Elizabeth encouraged her husband to reconcile with his aunt, but why? Why do you want her around Elizabeth? Lady Catherine is tied with Mrs. Bennet.

Side Note, a lot of the heroes and heroines are motherless, Henry Tilney, Colonel Brandon, Captain Wentworth, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Charles Bingley, George Knightley, Emma Woodhouse, and Anne Elliot. So really not a lot of MILs to go around!

#austen's mother in laws #jane austen #question response #mrs. dashwood #sophia croft #mrs. morland #I think Mrs. Morland is the best mother #but Mrs. Dashwood is the best MIL

[esther-dot]

Pride & Prejudice AUs

You Look Like A Movie, You Sound Like A Song 2k @jonsastan

She had met Jon Targaryen there. It was a complete accident and at first, Sansa thought, a complete misfortune. He was drenched from an impromptu swim in his pond, and she was flustered, not wanting him to think she was vying for his attention. But as she had attempted to make her hurried escape, he had found her and invited her parents to stroll with him around the gardens. He had offered her kindness, and thoughtfulness, he had talked with her parents, discussed the present state of politics with her father and chatted knowledgeably about gardens with her mother.

A Certain Step Toward Falling in Love 2k by @comma-splice

Jon Snow returns North after departing abruptly one year ago.

The Bennet Sisters - a P&P AU comic by @melinaillustrations

P&P Gifset by @sardoniyx, P&P Gifset by @dcbicki, P&P Gifset by deactivated

Persuasion AUs

Who Loves Longest, Who loves Best 1k by @ladysaruka

After refusing him years ago, Sansa sees her cousin once again.

Persuasion edits one, two , three by @glueck

Mansfield Park AUs

Half Agony, Half Hope 10k, incomplete by @noqueenbutthequeeninthenorth

After the death of his disgraced mother, Jon Snow is taken in by his uncle's family, the Starks of Winterfell. He grows up alongside his cousins, including the beautiful and kind-hearted Sansa, but knowing he can never truly be their equal, he fears he has little choice but to leave the place he's come to call home. corresponding moodboard

Catch Me If You Can 34k (P&P and Emma inspired too) by @ben-barnes-is-my-husband

Set in the countryside of Regency England, Jon Snow has been in love with Sansa Stark for as long as he can remember. He wants her as his wife, but Sansa is not sure she wants to be a wife at all, and she knows she doesn’t want to marry the pragmatic and boring Jon. She’d rather help Theon Greyjoy come out of his shell and play matchmaker. But then Jaime Lannister comes to town and Jon finds he has some serious competition for Sansa…

Moments Like This (So Few and Far Between) 3k by @lydiamartenism

Mama and Papa left the house to go pick up Jon, the son of her father’s oldest friend. Three weeks ago, the phone rang and their parent’s announced that Jon would be coming to live with them since his mother passed away and had no one else to take care of him.

Northanger Abbey AUs

The Lady in White 7k by @kissed-by-circe

Dragonstone Manor had looked like it had woken only a few days earlier, after a slumber of several years, if not decades, and Sansa had felt like the heroine of a gothic novel, a mysterious, naive girl with a dark past or a dark secret, arriving at the opening scene of the most dramatic story of all times. Or Sansa as Katherine Morland in a Jane Eyre Setting.

Sense & Sensibility AUs

In Such Jocund Company 2k @maybetwice

It would be no matter at all for Captain Snow to return to the north after seven months’ absence, had Sansa’s heart not changed entirely in that time. A remix of Colonel Brandon and Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility.

Emma & Clueless AUs

if i loved you less 2k by @ladystarks

Her father has, often and fondly, told Sansa that she and Mr. Snow bite at each other like wolves, but he hardly understood that their verbal sparring was as exhilarating as a sport well done, or a match coming together under Sansa’s skilled hands. corresponding artwork

Sansa: A NOVEL in Five Parts 15k by @imagineagreatadventure

Sansa Stark, handsome, clever, rich, hopes to establish herself as her town's foremost matchmaker. After seeing her governess Miss Shae married to the rich and clever Mr. Tyrion Lannister, she feels as though she deserves that title. Her dear friend and cousin, Jon Targaryen, heartily disagrees and is quite proven right when Sansa sets her sights on marrying off her newest and dearest friend Jeyne Poole to the vicar Mr. Baelish.

A Baldwin and a Betty 2k

Jon drives to the Valley to give Sansa a ride home.

Emma AU art by @dcvahkiin and Clueless art by wolvesofspring

Emma Gifset by @dcbicki

General Regency AUs

No Notion of Loving by Halves 2k @darkmagyk

The Stark cousin, Jon, goes home to discuss matters concerning the entail on Winterfell. In which Jon is a really good guy, and I flagrantly disregard how entails actually work.

Manners and Misunderstandings 114k, WIP by @x-winging-it

The Stark sisters have travelled all the way to London to begin their first season, leaving behind the familiar world of Winterfell Hall and a disappointed Jon Stark- with whom the eldest Miss Stark has been convinced to break off a connection. In London they join family friends the Baratheons and the fashionable young Tyrells in a world of romance and balls. Meanwhile Gendry Waters has been plucked out of the life he knew to become his ailing father's heir, Robb, Theon and later Rickon embark on military careers in the Napoleonic wars, and their aunt Lysa makes a foolish marriage. When tragedy hits the family, they must come together, learning how manners may hide monsters and the best people are often those misunderstood by society.

You Could Draw Me to the Gallows 2k by @azulaahai

After having eloped from home with and subsequently been abandoned by wealthy heir Joffrey Baratheon, Sansa Stark refuses to come home. Having caused a scandal that is sure to prevent her from ever marrying, she is adamant not to bring further shame to the family name by returning to Winterfell. Until, that is, a visitor comes to her - Jon Snow, an old family friend, determined to bring Sansa with him back north. He has a solution to offer her - a proposal with the potential to change both of their lives.

A Perilous Dance Indeed & fiercely, tenderly and eternally 27k by @amymel86

He should either look away or interrupt this improper little meeting, he knows. For some unfathomable reason, he does neither. The two look far too intimate for Jon’s liking, although he feels he should have come to expect it to be so. A romantic like Sansa – however proper she is – would simply adore overt flirtations and a secret tête-à-tête. Even from where he stands, Jon can see the way in which she has stars set in her eyes like precious cut stones. He only hopes the man for whom they shine is deserving of it. *** Cousin Jon is to inherit Winterfell Manor and its estate after the untimely death of his uncle leaves a widow and two daughters. Sansa is expectant of an imminent proposal from her dear beau, Harrold Hardyng and everything will be absolutely, stunningly, utterly fine.

Waiting for Your Slippered Feet 49k by @wintry-ritu

Lady Sansa Stark has always looked forward to her come-out season in London, the balls, the rides in Hyde Park, evenings at Vauxhall, the romance and wonder of it all. Never had she imagined that it would happen like this, with her parents gone and her younger siblings underfoot. Now, all Sansa wants is for it all to be over quickly so she can get back to Winterfell. She needs a kind, amiable man who will be brave enough to take on his wife's siblings. That should not be so hard to find in London, should it? And while she is most grateful for Jon Targaryen's help, why must her cousin be so distracting?

To Make You Love Me 16k incomplete and orphaned

When Ned Stark dies, he leaves behind his wife, two daughters, and his family’s estate at Winterfell. What follows is a series of unwanted marriage proposals, houseguests who far outstay their welcome, and Arya parading around in a comically large hat and an oil-paint mustache as she declares herself the new ‘Lord of Winterfell,’ in an attempt to dissuade her sister’s suitors. However, when Mr. Jon Snow — their distant cousin and Ned’s appointed heir to the estate — comes to call, an oil-paint mustache is hardly enough to deter him from courting Miss Sansa Stark. And she thinks, perhaps, that a man could marry her for love more than her claim, after all.

Mine for a Season 101k by @vivilove-jonsa

Colonel Jon Targaryen is a single man in possession of a good fortune who claims no interest in finding himself a wife. With his war wounds, he thinks no young lady would want him anyway for anything beyond the allure of his pocketbook. Fortunately and unbeknownst to him, Fate has chosen to find a wife for him and will even deliver her right to his doorstep. Taking on the responsibility of shepherding a young lady about for a Season in London is not at all what Jon had wished to do but he had accepted out of a sense of familial duty. However, once he meets Sansa again after only having met her years ago as a child, he may not consider it a duty so much as a torment.

a lady of winterfell 185k, WIP by @wandering-scavenger

She bit her lip and exhaled shakily, “If you are so sickened by the prospect of marrying me, we should be able to obtain an annulment easily enough with your father’s connections.” “I will do no such thing.” he snapped, refusing to look at her. Sansa had never felt more rejected than she did at that moment. Her past experiences of being humiliated at the hand of Joffrey did not feel as painful as this. Even so, she could not allow him to see the weakness in her, not now. “I will not be left out, Jon.” she said, tilting her chin up to look down at him. He grimaced. They were silent for longer than she cared to count, but each second that he did not speak chipped away at her resolve and her ability to withhold her tears. Jon did not want her, and she could not blame him. Who could ever want her? It should not have distressed her as much as it did. She was never his favourite sister, she who treated him as a stranger since she was old enough to understand what a bastard was. A tear slipped down to her face until she tasted the salt of it on her lips. “If we marry, we will remain so.” corresponding gifset

moth's wings 47k by @cellsshapedlikestars

Sansa was determined to convince her aunt to let Arya debut, which is how she finds herself in her current predicament. “Who is this secret gentleman who has asked for your hand?” Aunt Lysa asks, and Sansa knows from her tone that she does not believe. (She has every right not to believe, for it is not true.) And then Sansa does something very, very foolish. She says a name. “The Duke of Dragonstone!” Or, Sansa fakes an engagement so that Arya can debut and marry the man she loves. The only problem? Her fake fiance just so happens to be in the city when he was not supposed to be.

An Understanding 2k, WIP by @thewolvescalledmehome

At the start of Sansa Stark's third London Season, she decides it will be her last. She will secure a husband by the end of the final ball. Jon Snow is new to the London Season and high society. He never expected to inherit money or property from an unknown uncle. When they meet at a ball, Sansa gets an idea.

you're in my blood like holy wine 72k

Sansa finds it difficult to look at Jon’s face, with its weathered lines and cragginess. It is the face of the North and a face that northerners trust; the face of Sansa’s brothers and her father, who had been loved and respected by their tenants as their forefathers had been when they were kings. How can Sansa feel anything but resentment, looking into that face and knowing that all of her years of hard work will never earn her the respect that that profile engenders within seconds? But she does. It is a small, burning coal of something that must be smothered.

PRE CANON - WESTERN - FAIRYTALES - LITTLE WOMEN - HOLIDAY - SEASON 6 ANNE OF GREEN GABLES - THE GIRL IN GREY - FREE CITIES - FAIRYTALE PART II - POLITICAL MARRIAGE - SALTY TEENS - POST CANON

#jonsa #jonsa fic #regency au #pride and prejudice au #emma au #northanger abbey au #mansfield park au #persuasion au #dot fic list #marriage of convenience au #arranged marriage au

[e-louise-bates]

It’s Jane Austen’s birthday! I hate ranking lists that claim objectivity (Austen Heroes, Worst To Best, Absolutely And Completely The One Correct Way To View This, No This Isn’t Clickbait Why Do You Ask?), so here, instead have my own personal opinions of least-favorite to favorite Austen Heroes and Heroines.

First, the dudes, because, well, why not:

7. Edmund Bertram. Look, Edmund is unfailingly kind, but good grief. So judgmental toward others! So blind to his own weak spots! So unforgivably dense about the Crawfords! I could forgive the blindness and denseness if he didn’t set himself up as the wise and unfailingly correct judge and mentor. Edward Ferrars is also an idiot (see below), but at least he doesn’t go around considering himself better than everyone else.

6. Edward Ferrars. A bit of an idiot, but trying his best, poor thing. Kind of remarkable he turned out as well as he did when you consider his family and his tutor.

5. Colonel Brandon. A bit boring (unless portrayed by Alan Rickman), but a true gentleman and a man of sterling worth. Not much else to say about him.

4. Captain Wentworth. I disliked Captain Wentworth for a long time because of his unyielding bitterness against Anne. But you know, the older I get, the more I like the fact that he’s not perfect, and his flaws are actually kind of major ones, and he really does have a lot of growing to do throughout the story--and he does so. And yes, the letter. Swoon.

3. Mr. Darcy. The man who recognizes his flaws and then acts to correct them, both out of love for the woman who shoved them in his face and because it was the right thing to do. I have little patience for those who claim Mr. Darcy’s “real” problem was social awkwardness--Austen makes it thoroughly clear that yes, he is socially awkward, and that’s no excuse: he doesn’t think highly enough of other people to work to overcome his discomfort.

2. Mr. Knightley. I’ve already written an entire post on why Mr. Knightley is one of the best Austen heroes, so here I will simply say: I love his kindness, and empathize with his dislike of social gatherings, and admire his willingness to participate in said gatherings despite his dislike (unlike a certain other Austen leading man ...)

1. Henry Tilney, of course. He has a sense of humor! He cares about people! He’s kind! He makes mistakes, and then acts to rectify them! He’s mischievous! He’s human and adorable, and I love him.

The ladies!

7. Marianne Dashwood. Oh, Marianne. When I was sixteen, I too believed I knew exactly how the world ought to be, and was convinced my views were utterly correct and would never change. I suspect I was just as irritating to the people around me as you are. Marianne is a difficult character to really like. Yes, she does grow and improve by the end of the story, but I suspect she will always remain an exhausting individual.

6. Catherine Morland. Poor naive Cathy, she is so easily mistaken for a nitwit--that’s how I read her for years, until I had enough maturity myself to recognize that no, she’s simply an innocent girl who is too prone both to letting her imagination run away with her AND to expecting everyone else to be as straightforward as she is. Her character development isn’t as finely drawn as it would have been had Austen written her book later in life, but it is there.

5. Fanny Price. I love Fanny--she is not a drip!--but even I can admit that she is a difficult protagonist to admire. Her quiet steadfastness and strong moral compass are incredibly admirable, but her timidity and lack of self-esteem make for difficult reading, especially for modern readers who more easily resonate with a “headstrong, impertinent girl,” then with someone who cowers in the corner and passively accepts the terrible treatment she is given. That said, I do love her for the fact that despite the terrible treatment, despite her natural inclination to avoid conflict, despite her lack of faith in her own judgment, she still stands firm on what she believes is right and wrong, and won’t bend from that.

4. Emma Woodhouse. Emma is such a complex character. She’s not very likeable, but her journey from self-absorption to genuinely thinking of others (not just of how wonderful she is for appearing to think of others) is compelling. I especially appreciate Romola Garai’s portrayal of her as a too-intelligent woman desperate for mental stimulation and broader horizons, yet compelled to remain closed in a tiny box out of love and duty, and the indication that much of her errors came about as a result of that situation.

3. Elinor Dashwood. Elinor is nineteen at the start of S&S, and man, the poor girl. The only person with any sense (hah) in her family, she is forced to crush down all her emotions because otherwise her mother and sisters would be destitute and most likely disgraced. She’s not a very joyful character, but she is lovable, and especially when played by Emma Thompson, you rejoice all the more with her at that glorious ending.

2. Elizabeth Bennet. She is witty and intelligent, she makes mistakes and then strives to do better, she sparkles, and she is utterly lovable. There you go.

1. Anne Elliot. Anne is The Best, and that’s that. (Oops, I said I was going to stay away from objective statements, didn’t I? Let me rephrase) So far as I am concerned, Anne is The Best, and that’s that.

#happy birthday jane austen #jane austen #pride and prejudice #persuasion #emma #sense and sensibility #northanger abbey #mansfield park

[austenmarriage]

New Post has been published on Austen Marriage

New Post has been published on http://austenmarriage.com/giving-thanks-with-austen-2/

Giving Thanks with Austen

This blog originally appeared last year. With my blog now scheduled on the fourth Thursday of each month—Thanksgiving in the U.S.—I decided to reprise it.

Thanksgiving makes me wonder whether there was any formal giving of thanks in Jane Austen’s work. The November U.S. holiday has spread to most of the Americas. The English have a more general harvest-related tradition of providing bread and other food to the poor, often through the church. That tradition was extant in the Regency and continues now.

Though today’s American celebration is secular in nature, the practice has spiritual roots. It was religious settlers in Virginia and Massachusetts who began the celebration. Most Americans know the tradition of the Pilgrims inviting the native tribes to join in. It was the Indians who provided the food that enabled most of the early colonies to survive the first desperate years.

President George Washington created the first official Thanksgiving in 1789 “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God.” President Abraham Lincoln memorialized the date as the fourth Thursday in November, beginning in 1863, when, in the middle of the Civil War, he proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

Austen’s family was religious, of course. Her father and two brothers were clergymen. Her works contain strong, though not didactic, moral strains. I wondered: Did any of her characters ever directly express thanks—to God, to Providence, to the universe? Did anyone express gratitude in a way that recognized any higher power?

I could not find any direct use of “giving” or “offering” thanks in any of Austen’s six novels. Most of her novels contain fifty or sixty ordinary thanks each. Persuasion is the least thankful with only eighteen, but it includes the most fervent. Most of the thanks are a polite reflex to ordinary behavior or a specific response to a good deed performed by another.

“Thank God!” occurs once or twice per book. The sense is usually general. Sometimes the phrase is a positive and sometimes a negative. In Persuasion, Mrs. Croft thanks God that as a naval wife she is blessed with excellent health and was seldom seasick on the ocean. Perversely, William Elliot writes “Thank God!” that he can stop using the name “Walter”—the name of Anne’s father—as a middle name. Anne Elliot stiffens upon learning the insult to her family.

“Thank God!” is a remark that is canceled out in Northanger Abbey. Catherine Morland’s brother James writes her to say “Thank God!” that he is done with Isabella Thorpe, who is now pursuing Captain Tilney. The next post brings a letter from Isabella, telling Catherine “Thank God” that she’s leaving the “vile” city of Bath. By now dumped by the Captain, she doesn’t know that Catherine knows what’s up. Isabella pleads “some misunderstanding” with James and asks Catherine to help: “Your kind offices will set all right: he is the only man I ever did or could love, and I trust you will convince him of it.” Catherine doesn’t.

The only real “Thank God!”, as an appeal to the Deity, comes in Persuasion after Captain Wentworth’s inattention contributes to Louisa’s fall and concussion: “The tone, the look, with which ‘Thank God!’ was uttered by Captain Wentworth, Anne was sure could never be forgotten by her; nor the sight of him afterwards, as he sat near a table, leaning over it with folded arms and face concealed, as if overpowered by the various feelings of his soul, and trying by prayer and reflection to calm them.”

Everyone’s prayers are answered. Louisa mends and becomes engaged to Captain Benwick. Wentworth is free to marry Anne.

A deeply thankful attitude does exist with two of Austen’s characters. Readers who pause to think can probably guess the two. Beyond the village poor in the background, which characters are most in distress and most likely to be thankful for any relief?

We might think first of Mrs. Smith from Persuasion, who had the “two strong claims” on Anne “of past kindness and present suffering.” Her physical and financial straits are dire, yet “neither sickness nor sorrow seemed to have closed her heart or ruined her spirits.” Mrs. Smith, however, is more shrewd than thankful, using Anne’s marriage to help end her own suffering.

What character, living on the margins, has a level of energy that often sets into motion her active tongue? We find her in Emma:

“Full of thanks, and full of news, Miss Bates knew not which to give quickest.”

When Mr. Knightley sends her a sack of apples and the Woodhouse family sends her a full hindquarter of tender Hartfield pork, Miss Bates responds with the sunniest appreciation: “Oh! my dear sir, as my mother says, our friends are only too good to us. If ever there were people who, without having great wealth themselves, had every thing they could wish for, I am sure it is us.” She might be auditioning for a role in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

In contrast, the social-climbing new vicar’s wife, Mrs. Elton, feels thankful in a prerogative way. “I always say a woman cannot have too many resources—and I feel very thankful that I have so many myself as to be quite independent of society.”

If anyone has the right to feel a lack of thanks in life, it is Fanny Price of Mansfield Park. When she is not being forgotten, it is to provide some service for someone else. When she is not being ignored, it is to be abused by her aunt, Mrs. Norris. Just about every word that can convey melancholy, sadness, or anguish serves to repeatedly describe her.

She feels misery at least eight times; some variety of pain at least ten times; wretchedness half a dozen times. The best she normally manages is to feel both pain and pleasure, four times. She is oppressed three times and suffers stupefaction once. Her circumstances and personality leave her in a “creep mouse” state of mind. She trembles a dozen times; she cries a dozen times and sobs at least four other. The stress is so great that she comes close to fainting at least three times and is ready to sink once; she suffers fright or is frightened six times; she reacts with horror or to something horrible five times.

Yet for all her misery, and though she lacks a sunny disposition, she manages to look on the sunny side of life.

Fanny feels gratitude at least fifteen times, for things small and large. Gratitude for her cousin Edmund tending to her when she first comes to live with her wealthy relatives. For his providing her a horse to ride. For her uncle once letting her use the carriage to go to dinner. Even gratitude once “to be spared from aunt Norris’s interminable reproaches.”

Kindness comes up about 125 times in the book. The most common use again relates to Edmund: his kindness to her throughout, and his encouragement of others to be kind to her. Fanny can even feel grateful toward Henry Crawford, despite his character flaws, for his kindness to her brother and, a couple of times, for his kindness to her.

It seems to be a fundamental aspect of human nature that those with the least to appreciate in life treasure what they have the most. Austen’s treatment of Miss Bates and Fanny does not, I think, reflect a conscious attempt at moral teaching. Their attitudes flow directly from the women’s character. Fanny and Miss Bates are gentle souls with big hearts. They give thanks naturally for the joy of existence.

So should we all.

—

The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, which traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions, is now complete and available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.

#Fanny Price #Jane Austen #Mansfield Park #Miss Bates #Regency era #Thanksgiving #The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen

[mimicofmodes]

Sanditon, episode 1 part i

I’m having a lot of thoughts about Sanditon, both plot and costumes, so I thought I might as well share them here.

So, Austen’s original MS for Sanditon is very short - it’s often referred to as an “unfinished novel”, but it’s really just the beginning of the story and a rough draft at that. This gives someone who wants to finish it license to make the plot go in any direction they like, which Andrew Davies has definitely taken full advantage of at his Andrew Davies-est.

Our first view of the heroine, Charlotte Heywood, is as she’s lying in the grass to shoot a rabbit, her hair down and not covered with a bonnet, which gives us the visual cue that this is Not Your Mother’s Austen Story.

In the original text, Mr Heywood happens to be out in the fields and approaches the scene of the accident, bringing the Parkers to his home, where they’re met by “two or three genteel-looking young women”. Davies instead makes Charlotte the center of the adventure by having her see the accident (while looking entirely non-genteel) and dash off to help. It’s hard to know where exactly the Heywoods are supposed to sit on the social scale in this adaptation: they’ve done a thing like P&P05 where rusticity is emphasized by making people untidy and dressed in browns, but it also makes them seem a lot poorer than the original text. There was a huge social and financial gulf between gentlemen with country estates that produced food and the actual yeoman or tenant farmer classes, though. Presumably they are in the “country estate” range, though, since the Parkers take Charlotte with them to Sanditon as a friend rather than some kind of paid companion.

Ever since Outlander started, it’s become really popular for costumers to put women in anachronistic knitwear. This knitted spencer is very clever, but also very inaccurate. (So is the hair. I’m going to have lots of opportunities to say this, but hair should not be down in the Regency. Even girls too young to get married wore their hair up at this time - the flowing, half-up look doesn’t become a standard young-girl hairstyle until well into the Victorian era.)

Trafalgar House, on the most elevated spot on the down, was a light, elegant building, standing in a small lawn with a very young plantation round it, about a hundred yards from the brow of a steep but not very lofty cliff, and the nearest to it of every building, excepting one short row of smart-looking houses called the Terrace, with a broad walk in front, aspiring to be the Mall of the place. In this row were the best milliner's shop and the library a little detached from it, the hotel and billiard room. Here began the descent to the beach and to the bathing machines.

In another departure from the text, the very pleasant and elegant new area of Sanditon that’s being prepared for tourists is turned into what looks more like an industrial town. This is probably because we tend to see narratives about change in this period as going hand-in-hand with the changes of the Industrial Revolution. But it doesn’t really look like a new town that’s being built to cater to invalids and fashionable people ...

Our first look at Lady Denham, the Catherine de Bourgh of Sanditon. This outfit isn’t terrible; it’s kind of ca. 1795. However, that’s roughly twenty years out of date for this setting, and Lady Denham is supposed to care about status and appearances, so she should be dressing like a normal fashionable older woman. Another visual cliché that’s become standard!

In the original text, Charlotte is a lot like Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey, an ordinary young woman, while Lady Denham’s distant relation Clara Brereton is “the most perfect representation of whatever heroine might be most beautiful and bewitching” due to her physical attractions and her backstory: Lady Denham went to stay with some poorer relations, planning to take one of their daughters back to Sanditon with her, but instead took their poor relation. (Nice parallel with Charlotte’s situation.) Ironically, in the show Charlotte has the qualities we associate with heroines - she’s breezily free in her speech and hair - while Clara isn’t shown as interesting at all at first.

The younger Denhams, Sir Edward and his (step-)sister. In the original, the narrator explains pretty quickly that Sir Edward is a dope who likes exciting novels and wants to be a seductive rogue like their villains, so he’s fixing to carry off and seduce (read: rape) Clara for his own fun. But here, it’s clear that Sir Edward actually succeeds in flirting with Charlotte (if a bit slimily), and we eavesdrop on the Denhams’ conversation to learn about their motivations: his sister wants him to “focus on the task in hand” as the camera focuses on Clara, so it’s clear that there is a more purposeful scheme afoot. Just as in the text, though, Lady Denham makes it clear to Charlotte that he’s got to marry money.

For some reason, Lady Denham is dressed for Downton Abbey in this scene. Miss Denham’s spencer/pelisse is perfectly all right, but her hat is ... I don’t even know when her hat dates to. I suspect it’s based on this style of hat, but its sharpness and trimness make it read more modern.

The next introductions, following the MS’s order if not its timeline, are siblings of Charlotte’s host, Diana and Arthur Parker. Some much-needed comic relief! Davies has left out the second sister, though, as well as their busybody-ness, so they’re really nothing but hypochondriacs. Diana’s pelisse looks to be the one worn recently by Elle Fanning in the Mary Shelley movie, and by Anna Maxwell Martin in Death Comes to Pemberley.

The show then departs from the text by sending the group to the seaside. (Which seems like a obvious place to go, but it actually takes more than a week before the text even mentions going in the water.) Charlotte and Clara get in a bathing machine and change into clothes for swimming! We get a nice look at their period-appropriate corsetry as they get undressed. (The men strip down on the beach itself and go off into the waves. What’s slightly confusing to me is that Mrs. Parker and the Parker children were also there, but didn’t get into a bathing machine, so ... did they just watch the Parker brothers and Sir Edward walk around naked?)

Kudos to the costumer for leaning into the ugliness of Georgian swimwear. Charlotte has even put her hair up into the cap!

I’ve been neglecting the main Parkers, because there’s not much to say about them. They’re nice, enthusiastic people. The interior of their house does a good job or communicating Mr. Parker’s grand plans for Sanditon - he’s stretching to have his own grandiose Neoclassical stately home, and it’s not really working. It’s poorly-lit and whatever prints or inlay he has all over the walls makes that worse.

Charlotte is in a brown jumper dress over a collared habit shirt, something which I’d note appears on Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth in P&P05. Not the same specific costume, but the same family, and I doubt that’s a coincidence, given how much this production seems to be taking from that in terms of grittyness.

Mrs. Parker apologizes to Charlotte for her husband’s irritation over his other brother, Sidney, not having arrived yet, and then the two go into a shop to buy some fancy blue half-boots that I don’t really think are suitable for a ball. Reminder: this is supposed to be a clean, new seaside resort town.

Charlotte gets handed off to Miss Denham, who is once again in all black. Her sleeves have a kind of slashed-and-puffed effect, highly appropriate to the period as fashion inspiration in the 1810s moved away from the Neoclassical and into the medieval and Renaissance. Miss Denham comes off as very poisonous, complaining about Lady Denham (mean and miserly), Clara (sitting in the lap of luxury), Mr. Parker (going to ruin his family, obsessed with improving Sanditon), Arthur (a buffoon), and Sidney (unsavory and unreliable). I’m not really sure what the deal is with this conversation - it feels like Davies just wanted an excuse to make them talk together so we can see how bitchy Miss Denham is.

(cont’d)

#sanditon #jane austen #austen #regency #georgian #19th century #costuming

[janeaustentextposts]

I feel like I would have that reaction if Jane Austen was a contemporary author writing about Lizzie's pluck and determination and Strong Morality, but given that Austen saw this stuff happening with people she knew l can't condemn Lizzie. I love Charlotte and good for her but I'd disagree that going with "probably will be very poor" over "definitely going to go insane or commit murder within 60 yrs" is the immature decision. Granted yes there are probably solutions between that (1/2)

(2/2) and the Bennets as a whole kiiiind of COMPLETELY riding on the assumption that Jane Is Pretty, She'll Marry Rich was -not- that solution, but. Lizzie's stated reasons for refusing Collins were pretty valid; everyone would have been miserable.---

“Definitely going insane or committing murder” is a bit...dramatic, don’t you think? The whole point of Charlotte is that she knows how to manage Mr. Collins and make it work for her! She’s not unhappy, and she knows what she’s doing! Sure, Lizzy followed her heart and bagged Mr. Darcy, good for her, but she didn’t know she was going to do that: she had no plan and a heap of luck!

Charlotte is putting in the work for her happy ending, and Lizzy eventually grows up enough and observes enough of how Charlotte is living at Hunsford to appreciate that everyone is different, and someone else’s version of happiness not being one she could bear considering for herself doesn’t make other people dumber or worse than she is. Had Mr. Bennet died and Lizzy had to contend with living on literal charity from friends and family, Charlotte would be the person in a position to gloat, if anything. Not that she would, because Charlotte isn’t a dick and would probably do her best to see the Bennets as comfortable as possible even if her husband inherited Longbourn--maybe move them into a cottage on the estate or in the village, likely with help from the Gardiners, as Mrs. Bennet and her girls become the P&P equivalent of the Bates, hoping a friendly neighbour will send them a ham and some nice apples to have sparingly through the winter.

You’re right, Lizzy would have been miserable with Mr. Collins because Lizzy was not equipped or prepared to make any kind of compromise. That’s who she is, fine, and it’s taken for granted that Austen is mostly on her side because Elizabeth is her heroine and the clever Mr. Bennet backs her up, but...Lizzy is her father’s favourite. Her mother is silly in many respects, but her fears are valid, and the Lydia thing proves Mr. Bennet has kind of been letting the side down when it comes to giving a shit about what’s going to happen to his daughters after he’s dead. Sure, he rather teasingly tells Lizzy that her mother will disown her if she doesn’t marry Mr. Collins, and he’ll disown her if she does, so haha Elizabeth is off the hook and that’s great for her; but that her father so lovingly declined to disown her so long as she refused a clergyman with good prospects isn’t going to serve her all that well when he dies in a few years.

Would the misery of Elizabeth’s thin skin and inability to manage life with Mr. Collins be more or less miserable than contending with the downward spiral of supporting six women on so little money that the charity of even basic food staples would probably be necessary as ‘gifts’ from friends and neighbours? Mary could possibly be sent out as a governess, but I can’t imagine her meeting with much fortune or success, in that line--she’d likely barely be able to keep herself on her wages, perhaps sending a little money home, and being one less burden on the housekeeping ledgers for the widowed Mrs. Bennet and her remaining daughters. (And Mrs. Bennet doesn’t seem the sort who is used to managing a tight budget.)

But Austen makes time for Charlotte, too--and she writes about Lizzy’s maturation to realize that Charlotte hasn’t made a deal with the devil, but a very real compromise that many women made. We have to be careful not to vilify Mr. Collins to such an extent that he’s an impossibility. At most, he’s that bloviating moron who sits in the front row of your Intro to Philosophy class and constantly kisses the lecturer’s ass. These are relatively simple creatures to outwit, and Charlotte is a master, already. She’s met him maybe a handful of times in public and manages to manipulate him into proposing to her--I can’t imagine the level her powers will ascend to once she’s actually married him and had a chance to observe him closely for even 48 hours. She will own him for eternity and find every way to get her way.

It’s not romantic, no. Charlotte herself admits she has no time for romance; and one gets the feeling from the tone of Austen’s letters (and even her treatment of Marianne Dashwood and Catherine Morland’s journeys to maturity,) that she felt relying too much on romantic ideals could come at a heavy price. The most successful women of her novels temper their romance with reasonable humour, wit, self-awareness, and a willingness to accept imperfections in themselves and others. Lizzy is fortunate, because Lizzy is the heroine of a novel, and has a second chance with Darcy despite the extremely long odds of all things considered (her first refusal being the Sickest of Burns, her family’s continual state of being poor and embarrassing, Lydia’s elopement, the fact that in trying to restore respectability to the family Lydia should be permanently bonded to the man who would have ruined Georgiana in public and broke her trust in private as well as scheming and presuming upon the good-will of Darcy’s dead father and basically deeply fucking with that entire family over the course of many years, and Darcy’s heavy doubt that Elizabeth could ever care for him until he has the faintest whiff of a chance only because his aunt lost her shit over everything and happened to meddle in precisely the way to psychologically backfire and give him hope.)

It’s like a Rube Goldberg machine of situational coincidences which deliver Darcy’s second offer, and Lizzy has maybe earned it in a karmic sense because she has done a lot of self-reflection and personal growth? Of course they’re in love and all that jazz, but the 10 000 a year is really beyond anything anyone could have hoped for, for her. Charlotte doesn’t get anything dropped so neatly into her lap--Charlotte goes out there and makes things happen...and that’s kind of bad ass in a way that’s beyond what we see Lizzy capable of doing.

Charlotte Lucas has magical manipulation skills Elizabeth can only dream of.

#Ask Me Anything Austen-Adjacent #AMAAA #Jane Austen #Pride and Prejudice #gif #Anonymous

[cheapjerseys2013mart-blog]

public education

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[eastvalley]

Jane Austen’s books in upcoming Brazilian telenovela

Yes. Unexpectedly, there is going to be a Brazilian telenovela inspired by Jane Austen novels, called Orgulho e Paixão (Pride and Passion). It will take elements mainly from Pride and Prejudice, however it will also feature characters taken from Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey and even Lady Susan… And something from Mansfield Park as well. It is set to release in March 20th, 2018.  

Honestly, as a Brazilian, I’m really surprised. I was never one to watch many telenovelas myself, but still… I never saw this coming. Even with all the changes made, not being a direct adaption, etc.

The story will be set in early XX century Brazil, specifically at the fictitious Vale do Café (Coffee Valley), at the countryside of São Paulo state (in real life, the coffee production in the region was very high and important to the country back then).

It will be protagonized by Elisabeta Benedito (Elizabeth Bennet, of course) and various Austen characters, all put together. Original characters and plots will also be in the mix.  It seems this telenovela will have around 150 chapters (which is an average number for this type of media) - hence the extra material. The channel airs 6 chapters per week.

>>>About some changes regarding characters:

*note: I will explain the facts using the book names for clarity, but all characters had their names or at least surnames modified (either slightly or dramatically)*

IMPORTANT: As you know, I have written this before the novela started, so there were some incorrect information I got from entertainment websites. I think I  have corrected those (marked as edits). The general information was correct, but there were some false details...

- Forget Mary and Kitty Bennet. Catherine Morland (Northanger Abbey) and Marianne Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility) join the Bennet sisters in their place (4th and 6th one in the picture).

- Emma Woodhouse will live with both father and grandfather. Her family will be going through a serious financial crisis, but she doesn’t know that. Emma will be best friends with Elizabeth, and for the delight of Mrs. Bennet, she is determined in finding good suitors for all Bennet sisters.

- George Knightley, here a lawyer, will initially be married to a woman with an incurable disease, who will eventually perish (apparently Miss Woodhouse herself put the couple together). Naturally, he will end up falling in love with the oblivious Emma.

edit: As the telenovela started we see that Knightley is not married to the other woman as of the beginning of the story (though he will be) - in fact he is not in any relationship - but Emma is indeed trying to set him up with her. He, however, is very much in love with Emma already (but she has no idea). Fun fact though: Knightley is friends with Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility). 

There’s sadly been no mention of other Emma characters. But I’m guessing we will have at least one other guy interested (or seemly so?) in Emma. 

- No sign of Caroline Bingley or Lady de Bourgh in the way we know them, though there will be other characters trying to put an end to Elizabeth and Jane’s involvement with Darcy and Bingley. Comes to mind Bingley’s mother, a powerful woman devoted to business (who will fall in love with Emma’s father, and vice versa), and Susana, cunning ambitious divorced(?) woman - inspired by Austen’s very own Lady Susan - who works for Mrs. Bingley. The Darcy family is still from England, but owns a house in São Paulo (they build railroads). Darcy’s father is also alive and will come back to Brazil in his disapproval of Elizabeth. 

edit: The Darcy family doesn’t own a house at São Paulo, they are hosted by the Bingleys!

- Wickham (Pride and Prejudice) and Willoughby (Sense and Sensibility) seem to have been fused into one character as a womanizer poet - for the horror of the Bennets (since now Marianne is part of the family as well). He won’t be involved with Elizabeth though, someone else will.

- There is also a character standing in for Fanny Price (Mansfield Park), but she will be bitter and vengeful (although shy) due to the treatment she receives from her uncles – and apparently a straight up villain? Who knows how that will go though, she may get better later… or not. Anyway, she will work as governess at the Tilneys’ (Northanger Abbey) mansion. One of her brothers in the story, here named Ernesto, works at the coffee plantations in Emma’s family lands. He will not be satisfied by the conditions of his parents/class and fight for them. Ernesto and Elizabeth will work together towards egalitarian causes and in the process, he will fall for her - and it seems she will be drawn to him as well, before choosing Darcy.

edit: No “uncles”, just the Tilneys! She’s been in the mansion for years, became cold and distant, not even visiting her family. She resents them for “leaving” her there (they are poor and her mother wanted to give her better conditions, but like...it didn’t go so well). Also, Fanny’s parents are Italian immigrants, and while part of the family works at coffee plantations, it is not at the Woodhouse lands. Also I’m not sure about Elisabeta and Ernesto’s work for “egalitarian causes” happening, though that would be in character for them, we still have to see that...She does go after a job, despite being raised to be a housewife, but anyway. Also he fell for her pretty early, but since she wanted Darcy he moved on. 

More information is yet to come.

>>> More personal comments:

Yes, 100-200 episodes is a lot, I agree. If it was a minisseries with like…20 chapters or something it would be nice. But as a telenovela, they are going to create a LOT of stuff. I’m trying to keep that in mind, ha. It’s really not going to be a direct translation from page to screen, guys. I just hope it’s not dull or…anger inducing - but fun and cool! We do have really good stuff made here, but like everywhere else there’s bad stuff too, of course…

About the Bennet sisters: I find it a neat idea! Lizzie, Jane and Lydia were always the focus, after all. It’s just a pity there is no Elinor.  

I don’t like the idea of a initially married Knightley though, even if he will become a widower. Guess I’m gonna have to just deal with it. Hopefully it will be quick… Also I think they should have kept Emma’s father as an older man, instead of giving her a dad AND grandfather. 

edit: REALLY don’t know how the marriage thing is going to go, now that I know he loves Emma  before it happens… I’m worried XP I really hope they can develop things nicely… 

And I think it would make more sense if at least Darcy had remained with no living parents…or if they really wanted to include one, it should have been his mother, I think. Oh, well…

Now, regarding the Wickham/Willoughby combo - Yeah, I think having both of them would be too much, right? A fusion makes sense! Not sure about the whole “poet” thing though…why not keep him in the military, like Wickham? Oh, well…

And “Fanny”? Well, now THAT is definitely different. I’m glad Mansfield Park is not a favorite of mine! ^^’ We shall see how this goes…

#orgulho e paixão #pride and prejudice #jane austen #sense and sensibility #northanger abbey #emma #judging by recent news it seems we will see darcy and elizabeth's married life as well

[bitofbookishness]

Thanks @studylikegeller​ for these fantastic questions!

SEPTEMBER Week 1 Can you remember the first book you’ve read? What was it?

I can't remember the first book. I can remember having to choose from a specific set of reading-level books in grade 1 and not liking the options, and feeling annoyed that I had to take one of them home to read.

What was the most surprising thing you learned from a non-fiction book?

Reading C. S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy, I was surprised by the rather unemotive, inexorable way he became a Christian.

Week 2 What is your favorite book written in your native language?

A book of Dutch nursery rhymes that I lucked upon at a secondhand book sale here in Geelong, Australia. It has many of the same rhymes that my mother's two books do that she's had since childhood. And some lovely illustrations!

Think about the book that you’re currently reading. Would you like to be a character in this story?

I'm reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey at the moment, and, so I think no, I would rather not be a character in it.

Week 3 What is your favorite book written in a language except from your native language?

I love reading Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and have previously entertained notions of learning Russian in order to read it in it's original language, along with Fyodor Dostoyevksy's Crime and Punishment. But I suspect it's a difficult venture, and I'll most likely not do it!

Who is your favorite couple from a romance book?

Mr and Mrs Weasley from the Harry Potter books. Okay, so they're not romance books per se, but the Weasleys are my favourite fictional couple!

Week 4 Have you ever had a truly awful experience with a book? What was it?

Reading the middle section of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, all a particularly heavy fire and brimstone sermon in a church, was particularly difficult. I'm not sure how I got through it. I remember reading it on the train to Melbourne to go to an Arabic class. It was required reading for my literature subject. I discovered after a few weeks that studying a language AND literature wasn't the best idea for me. They were both much too intense.

Who is your least favorite character in the book that you are currently reading?

It's possible too early to tell, but it might just be the ironically appointed heroine of the story, Miss Catherine Morland, herself. As stated above, I'm currently reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.

Thanks for reading!

,___, [O.o] /)__) -“–”-

#2021readingchallenge #2021bookclub #actually read a lot 2021 #today #books #reading #about me

[dearemma]

who is the best parent in the austen world?

i was talking about Mr. Woodhouse to my friend who refuses to read Austen (so basically I was talking at her and she was humoring me) and I began thinking... who is the best parent in the austen world? Now, I’m going to talk about characters who are actually alive during the book (sorry Lady Eliot). 

Now, my first thought was -- The Morlands. Of course. They have 10 kids but they take care of all of them. They are smart enough to provide for all of them and there isn’t any pressure on the girls to marry well. Their firstborn decides to marry a poor girl? Well, if he is happy!! They find him a pretty decent living and make all of the arrangements. Catherine’s dowry isn’t big by any means but it’s still a pretty good amount. i assume all of the other sisters will get the same.They have good values and don’t get in the way of their kids’s happiness.  

But, as much as they are good, I feel like maybe they aren’t as loving as they could be. They don’t seem to take an active interest in the kids as much as Mr. Woodhouse or Mrs. Bennet.

Which brings me to my other 2 contenders, Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Woodhouse.

 There is a lot of good meta on why Mrs. Bennet is actually a good mother. She is more aware of the world than anyone gives her credit for and she is only trying to make sure her daughters have a good life. But, like her good traits are also her bad traits: in her attempts to marry her daughters well to give them a good life, she ends up jeopardizing their chances.

But what about Mr. Woodhouse? Not a lot of meta on him. Here is my argument ( and counterargument ) for him --  he loves Emma, adores her!! Takes an interest in her hobbies and her interests! But his attention is part of what created some of her narcissism and attitude problems. ( funny how this is similar to mrs. bennet, what makes him good also makes him bad ). Honestly, I disagree with myself from 30 minutes ago, Mr. Woodhouse is probably not a good father, he is a difficult creature and Emma has to cater to his needs and whims. Emma ends up taking care of him not the other way around. BUT, part of his whims are about health and safety; he is taking care of Emma in his own way.

I don’t know, I started this meta very confidently and now I don’t even know my own name anymore. Are the Morlands good parents without a lot of passion because they are the exact opposite of the way gothic authors wrote parents? Is Mrs. Bennet’s understanding of the world enough to oppose the fact she doesn’t seem to want to understand her daughter’s personalities? Mr. Woodhouse is selfish and difficult and almost gets in the way of Emma’s happiness, but he is the parent who most clearly expresses his love for his daughter. 

I would say the Morlands are the best parents, but they are probably also the most one dimensional parents of the austen universe which makes it a lot easier for them to appear ‘good’. 

#idk talk to me #i suddenly have a lot of feelings and don't know my own mind #austen meta #i should be studying

[bethanydelleman]

Ranking Jane Austen heroines/women on how good of a mother they’d be?

As with the men, I think they would all be good mothers, though in different ways.

Elizabeth Bennet: Soccer mom, she wasn't given the opportunity to have a structured education herself, it will be different for her kids. She's hiring the best governess she can find (after Darcy does a full background check), she's encouraging her kids to do extracurriculars, they will speak six languages that she doesn't understand or else! Has a minor panic attack if she says anything that sounds even remotely like something either of her parents would say.

Jane Bennet: Gentle mom, she cannot imagine punishing her children, she just has a killer disappointed face (she is unaware of this). Encourages her children to always try to understand both sides of the story. Will eventually fall for a lie one of her children tells and be devastated when she figures out the truth.

Anne Elliot: Perfect mother, there is indeed no one so proper, so capable as Anne. She has also watched her sister do everything wrong and she knows exactly how to do it right.

Emma Woodhouse: Scatterbrained mom, makes a resolution to teach her daughter fancy work but then gets distracted and the sampler is left half finished. Promised to read with her son but they only make it halfway through the novel. Good thing she hired an excellent "Miss Taylor" to pick up the slack! And despite her occasional screw-ups, her kids love her to pieces. They just better be on guard when they hit 18 and she starts trying to marry them off.

Marianne Dashwood: Crunchy mom, or whatever the Regency period equivalent would be. She wants her kids to feel the dead leaves between their toes, she encourages them to write poetry and play moving ballads. Otherwise, a lot like her own mother (they have very similar personalities)

Elinor Dashwood: I-Say-I-Love-You-With-Food Mom, she may not be exactly emotionally available, but she orders her daughter's favourite meal when she's sad and there are tiny hearts in the stiches of her son's clothes. She makes sure her kids are provided for, educated, and healthy. When she asks if they are hungry, they know she's saying, "I love you."

Fanny Price: Nurturing mom, she will be everything for those children that Edmund and William were to her, but nothing like Sir Thomas, Lady Bertram, Mrs. Norris or her own parents. She has a good deal of experience from nursing her own siblings so it's a pretty smooth beginning.

Catherine Morland: Overconfident mom, Catherine has been there and done that, she has six younger brothers and sisters after all, she's READY! This will be easy! All you have to do is make sure the baby is fed, washed, changed, and napped... oh... it's a lot harder to do this when you have only slept for 2.5 hours last night... (I know she would have servants, but still, being a new mother is tough!)

Bonus: Jane Fairfax tries to keep Frank from spoiling the kids, but it is literally impossible. He keeps buying them huge presents and then she would be the bad guy for saying no. Also, she knows that Frank lost their child in Kensington Gardens (twice), that's why she always insists he take a footman now.

Bonus bonus: Harriet Smith has a special box where she keeps all the 'treasures' her kids collect. It is her most precious possession.

#question response #jane austen #austen moms #emma #emma woodhouse #pride and prejudice #elizabeth bennet #jane bennet #sense and sensibility #marianne dashwood #elinor dashwood #persuasion #anne elliot #northanger abbey #catherine morland #mansfield park #fanny price #jane fairfax #harriet smith

[bethanydelleman]

Northanger Abbey Readthrough Ch 30

Despite having ten whole children, Mrs. Morland notices that Catherine is acting oddly and is concerned about it. She waits a few days before talking to Catherine, which honestly sounds very wise, kudos to her. Then she gets it into her head that the high life at Northanger Abbey has ruined Catherine for home. She's wrong of course, but she is trying her best. How often do parents understand their kids anyway?

I think Jane Austen gets a kick out of bringing in a hero, unlooked for, mid paragraph. It happens here with Henry Tilney, who shows up during Mrs. Morland's search for an essay, it happens with Mr. Darcy turning from the stables at Pemberley, and with Captain Wentworth's arrival in Bath!

I just love this so much:

He was not ill-inclined to obey this request, for, though his heart was greatly relieved by such unlooked-for mildness, it was not just at that moment in his power to say anything to the purpose. Returning in silence to his seat, therefore, he remained for some minutes most civilly answering all Mrs. Morland’s common remarks about the weather and roads. Catherine meanwhile—the anxious, agitated, happy, feverish Catherine—said not a word; but her glowing cheek and brightened eye made her mother trust that this good-natured visit would at least set her heart at ease for a time, and gladly therefore did she lay aside the first volume of The Mirror for a future hour.

Henry can't talk, Catherine is just sitting there all heart eyes. It's so cute! It's so real! I love it so much. I can't even.

Mrs. Morland runs out of things to talk about and Henry finally lightbulb-moments his way into a walk to the Allens. Which Sarah ALMOST RUINS! Thank you, Sarah. Oblivious younger siblings remain a timeless problem. But Mrs. Morland luckily catches on and sends them on their little solitary walk. Mrs. Morland's "silencing nod" seems to be much more effective than Mrs. Bennet's winks at Kitty, by the way.

Such a short proposal description, but it's so lovely:

Some explanation on his father’s account he had to give; but his first purpose was to explain himself, and before they reached Mr. Allen’s grounds he had done it so well that Catherine did not think it could ever be repeated too often. She was assured of his affection; and that heart in return was solicited, which, perhaps, they pretty equally knew was already entirely his own

Now, a lot of people hate this:

I must confess that his affection originated in nothing better than gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought. It is a new circumstance in romance, I acknowledge, and dreadfully derogatory of an heroine’s dignity; but if it be as new in common life, the credit of a wild imagination will at least be all my own.

I have already talked about why a girl liking a boy first is bad (stupid notions of female modesty basically), but I don't understand why people dislike this so much. Yes, it wasn't love at first sight, but there is nothing wrong with liking someone because they like you first! That is literally what happened with Elizabeth Bennet! And it's not like that is the only reason Henry proposed, he realized that she is awesome! It was the regard for him that made him take notice, but that isn't why he defied his father, rode over, and proposed.

I love this, what did the Allens think of them? A very short visit to Mrs. Allen, in which Henry talked at random, without sense or connection, and Catherine, wrapt in the contemplation of her own unutterable happiness, scarcely opened her lips, dismissed them to the ecstasies of another tête-à-tête

Am I saying I love too many things? I WILL KEEP LOVING THINGS! This book is the best! I love it with my whole heart.

Here is a nice rendering of Henry's conversation with his father if you like fan fiction:

In Just Defiance

Now the crazy thing is how important John Thorpe was to the plot. His bragging about Catherine's wealth is the whole reason that Catherine was able to visit the abbey and probably secured her relationship with Henry Tilney, Thorpe's second interference has her sent home in disgrace, the catalyst for Henry's proposal. I don't even know if Henry and Catherine would have got together if it wasn't for that stupid idiot Thorpe! What a weird story!

I love John's lies though, exaggerating wealth and then poverty:

The expectations of his friend Morland, therefore, from the first overrated, had ever since his introduction to Isabella been gradually increasing; and by merely adding twice as much for the grandeur of the moment, by doubling what he chose to think the amount of Mr. Morland’s preferment, trebling his private fortune, bestowing a rich aunt, and sinking half the children, he was able to represent the whole family to the general in a most respectable light.

and then

They were, in fact, a necessitous family; numerous, too, almost beyond example; by no means respected in their own neighbourhood, as he had lately had particular opportunities of discovering; aiming at a style of life which their fortune could not warrant; seeking to better themselves by wealthy connections; a forward, bragging, scheming race. The terrified general pronounced the name of Allen with an inquiring look; and here too Thorpe had learnt his error. The Allens, he believed, had lived near them too long, and he knew the young man on whom the Fullerton estate must devolve.

"lived near them too long" is a great way to describe neighbours who have grown tired of each other.

It says that John is, "spurning a friendship which could be no longer serviceable" which makes me think that he actually ended things with James, not the other way around. Come on, James!

I love Catherine's ultimate conclusion about General Tilney, because I'm totally with her! He's the worst:

Catherine, at any rate, heard enough to feel that in suspecting General Tilney of either murdering or shutting up his wife, she had scarcely sinned against his character, or magnified his cruelty.

Oh the romance of it all, and the first time Henry defies his father:

The general, accustomed on every ordinary occasion to give the law in his family, prepared for no reluctance but of feeling, no opposing desire that should dare to clothe itself in words, could ill brook the opposition of his son, steady as the sanction of reason and the dictate of conscience could make it. But, in such a cause, his anger, though it must shock, could not intimidate Henry, who was sustained in his purpose by a conviction of its justice. He felt himself bound as much in honour as in affection to Miss Morland, and believing that heart to be his own which he had been directed to gain, no unworthy retraction of a tacit consent, no reversing decree of unjustifiable anger, could shake his fidelity, or influence the resolutions it prompted.

I do think it's a sign of Henry's growth that he finally defies his father, but I also get the feeling he's just never had any reason to go against him. It's my impression that he mostly maintained a civil relationship with his father so he could keep visiting Eleanor. Catherine is just the first thing to be important enough for him to fight back. *heart eyes*

IT'S ROMANTIC YOU HATERS!

#almost there! #northanger abbey readthrough #northanger abbey #so much work!

[bethanydelleman]

Northanger Abbey Readthrough Ch 13

Isabella's true character is revealed Catherine, "Isabella appeared to her ungenerous and selfish, regardless of everything but her own gratification." and James Morland, smitten with Isabella, has his worst moment:

“I did not think you had been so obstinate, Catherine,” said James; “you were not used to be so hard to persuade; you once were the kindest, best-tempered of my sisters.”

And then when Isabella and John Thorpe PHYSICALLY HOLD CATHERINE IN PLACE, James continues to do... nothing. He only finally tells John to stop after Catherine breaks away herself.

#downwithJamesMorland

It's unfortunate because James Morland is one of the few unmarried Austen men by the end of his novel and you'd like to use him for fan fiction but his sister defence score is so low... (nothing is sexier than a man who treats his sister right!) James ends up reminding me a lot of Edmund Bertram. There is nothing wrong with having a crush on a girl, but you should not be willing to sacrifice your principles for her!

Catherine stands resolute. Her big defining moment of moral backbone is resisting peer pressure, which might not seem like much but it's hard! Especially with the opposition of her older brother. And I want to point out, it's not just to avoid another horrible carriage ride with Thorpe, she does offer to go with them the next day. As she contemplates herself, it was not only for her own pleasure that she refused, she believed herself in the right not to lie.

I love this quote:

If I could not be persuaded into doing what I thought wrong, I never will be tricked into it.

Also Jane Austen playing cheeky with our imaginations:

“She is as obstinate as—” Thorpe never finished the simile, for it could hardly have been a proper one.

My mind automatically goes to "ass" (donkey) by the way.

This type of sentence, that immediately contradicts itself, is used a lot in Jane Austen's juvenilia:

Her explanation, defective only in being—from her irritation of nerves and shortness of breath—no explanation at all, was instantly given.

Here is an example from Frederic & Elfrida:

They were exceedingly handsome and so much alike, that it was not every one who knew them apart. Nay, even their most intimate freinds had nothing to distinguish them by, but the shape of the face, the colour of the Eye, the length of the Nose, & the difference of the complexion.

We also have our first hint here of the General's true character:

To such anxious attention was the General’s civility carried, that not aware of her extraordinary swiftness in entering the house, he was quite angry with the servant whose neglect had reduced her to open the door of the apartment herself. “What did William mean by it? He should make a point of inquiring into the matter.” And if Catherine had not most warmly asserted his innocence, it seemed likely that William would lose the favour of his master forever, if not his place, by her rapidity.

He definitely has a temper and very exacting standards, for both his staff and his children. However, he is very polite with Catherine, which makes her think favourably of Thorpe, "made her think with pleasure that he might be sometimes depended on." If only she knew!

Catherine then learns that Mr. Allen doesn't think that the trip would have been entirely prudent, Mrs. Allen agrees but only from a fashion perspective. Catherine is mortified to learn she has done something wrong, but Mrs. Allen doesn't seem very concerned:

Young people will be young people, as your good mother says herself. You know I wanted you, when we first came, not to buy that sprigged muslin, but you would. Young people do not like to be always thwarted.

This is actually a pretty wise statement, though I'm not sure Mrs. Allen has really been doing her job as a chaperone properly. It also speaks to those grey lines around propriety. We don't see women in Jane Austen's novels ruined by a single act of impropriety in the way that contemporary Historical fiction/romance is always imagining. It is usually a pattern of behaviour. And people clearly understand that young adults/teenagers will be a bit wild at times, because you know, people are people and have always been people.

Now we get to one of Catherine's flaws (which will come up again) she doesn't understand when her actions will be taken as officious or meddling. Her desire to warn Isabella comes from a good place, but as Mr. Allen points out, it's only going to make people dislike her. Elizabeth Bennet has a much more delicate and prudent approach when it comes to Lydia going to Brighton, even though that doesn't end up changing the result. She knows that direct opposition to the scheme would only make her younger sister hate her, which would solve nothing and only create more problems. As Mr. Allen points out, if Mrs. Thorpe is allowing it, let it go.

#james morland #down with James morland #northanger abbey readthrough #northanger abbey #catherine morland #john thorpe #the BIG MOMENT

[bethanydelleman]

Okay okay okay, Anon. You get a bonus, your actual question answered AND a really long Fanny with a dragon fanfic. It's your lucky day!

Using the AU described in this story

Elizabeth Bennet: Is taken in when Wickham tells her that he found a dragon egg and Mr. Darcy stole it from him. She rejects Mr. Darcy's first proposal on these grounds, only to learn that not only did Darcy NOT steal the egg, he found it and ended up giving the dragon to his sister for her protection. They eventually marry, but never find another dragon's egg themselves. Georgiana becomes a famous cartographer, taking sketches from the back of her dragon.

Jane Bennet: Found a dragon, decided the best thing to do was to sell it to save her family. Mr. Bennet stopped her and promised to actually save for dowries if she kept her egg. She did, he did. Her and Bingley have a great time riding around on her dragon.

Elinor Dashwood: She knows they can hardly afford to keep a dragon when she finds her egg, but even prudence cannot force her to sell the dragon. Understanding Colonel Brandon's good character and hoping that Marianne will be protected, she gives the dragon to her sister's husband on their wedding day.

Marianne Dashwood: writes a ton of dragon-based poetry about her husband's dragon. It is objectively bad, but Brandon loves it.

Emma Woodhouse: Lol, pure of heart indeed! I mean, Emma is great, but no she never got a dragon. Can you imagine how conceded that would make her? No dragon for Knightley either, they are rare! Highbury has never seen a dragon.

Anne Elliot: She revealed her long treasured dragon's egg to Wentworth upon their engagement. He hardly needed another proof of her worth.

Catherine Morland: As Catherine was moving into Henry Tilney's house, post marriage:

"Dearest Catherine, is that a dragon's egg?"

"Yes, I found it as a child and I've kept it ever since, why?"

"Catherine, you realize that makes your fortune equal, or even greater, to my father's expectations when he thought you were the heiress to the Allens?"

"Does it really? I thought, well so many people in my family have found them, I did not think too much about it."

"How many?"

"Oh we have seven or eight at home, I have a lot of brothers and sisters."

"And none hatched? I do not remember seeing a dragon when I last visited."

"No, my parents have never understood the purpose of a dragon and what it could do for a clergyman. My mother could not imagine the expense of raising one."

Henry just laughed and shook his head.

And then they had epic adventures on a dragon which they co-wrote into a best-selling series of novels.

Fanny Price: See the other post.

#dragons #question response #jane austen heroines

[bethanydelleman]

Lady Susan Readthrough Letters 19 & 20

Summary: Lady Susan confirms to her friend that the idea of marrying Sir James made Frederica elope. Lady Susan ridicules her daughter for falling in love with Reginald and is disgusted by her artless way of going about it. She is not too worried, as Reginald doesn't seem to notice.

Sir James shows up uninvited at Churchill! Catherine thinks Lady Susan is pissed off, Frederica is extremely agitated, and Reginald is watching everything with interest. Lady Susan takes Catherine aside and tells her that Frederica is to marry Sir James soon. She talks him up (though Catherine makes her own judgement), and then thanks Catherine for her kindness.

Catherine is unmoved. She thinks Sir James is an idiot and hopes that Frederica will attract Reginald instead. Sir James invites himself to stay a few days.

-+-

Catherine writes, "The girl whose heart can distinguish Reginald De Courcy, deserves, however he may slight her, a better fate than to be Sir James Martin's wife."

This reminded me of this part of Persuasion:

"Lady Russell had only to listen composedly, and wish them happy, but internally her heart revelled in angry pleasure, in pleased contempt, that the man who at twenty-three had seemed to understand somewhat of the value of an Anne Elliot, should, eight years afterwards, be charmed by a Louisa Musgrove." (Ch 13)

This seems like a strange virtue, falling in love with the most worthy person. Love is kind of a random thing but Catherine praises Frederica for falling in love with the right man (has she forgotten that Reginald is the only man present?) and Lady Russell is angry at Wentworth for falling for the wrong girl. This thinking seems to ignore that there may be many different people who are right for you?

This is also a bit of my problem with Fanny & Edmund. Like yes, he is the best man she's met, but she's met like 5 total! Can she have a few more choices before she settles down?

Such was the first distinguished exploit of Miss Frederica Vernon; and, if we consider that it was achieved at the tender age of sixteen, we shall have room for the most flattering prognostics of her future renown.

Again, Lady Susan almost seems proud of Frederica. I wonder if she would love her if they were the same or if she'd be even more threatened by her?

I can only suppose the lady to be governed by the fear of never getting her money

Lol, good call Miss Summers!

To disobey her mother by refusing an unexceptionable offer is not enough; her affections must also be given without her mother’s approbation.

Again, Mansfield Park:

"And you must be aware, Fanny, that it is every young woman’s duty to accept such a very unexceptionable offer as this.” (Ch 33)

I do find it hilarious thought to think that a parent can order a child to fall in love.

Her feelings are tolerably acute, and she is so charmingly artless in their display as to afford the most reasonable hope of her being ridiculous, and despised by every man who sees her.

This statement will be entirely debunked by Catherine Morland, who with the greatest artlessness will manage to marry everyone's dream husband, Henry Tilney.

The poor girl, however, I am sure, dislikes him; and though his person and address are very well, he appears, both to Mr. Vernon and me, a very weak young man.

Catherine pulls no punches.

mixing more frequent laughter with his discourse than the subject required—said many things over and over again, and told Lady Susan three times that he had seen Mrs. Johnson a few evenings before.

He sounds like the male version of Charlotte Palmer.

"When you have the happiness of bestowing your sweet little Catherine, some years hence, on a man who in connection and character is alike unexceptionable, you will know what I feel now; though, thank Heaven, you cannot have all my reasons for rejoicing in such an event. Catherine will be amply provided for, and not, like my Frederica, indebted to a fortunate establishment for the comforts of life.”

Okay, so Lady Susan is not wrong here, Frederica has no fortune (thanks to her mother no doubt) and will need to marry well. I guess the big question is, why is Lady Susan pushing this so hard and why is Frederica so determined against it?

My guess is that Lady Susan's ultimate plan is to leech off her daughter and SIL and drain them dry. Frederica has likely watched her mother do this sort of thing and fears being with a man who is under her mother's power. Or she just really wants Frederica out of her hair. I cannot imagine this move is selfless or rational.

Luckily, Frederica has Catherine fighting on her side!

#lady susan readthrough #lady susan vernon #frederica vernon #reginald de courcy #sir james #the adaptation did such a great job with him #catherine vernon

[bethanydelleman]

Sir Thomas as a Parent

We don’t see many good fathers in Austen. Mr. Morland seems to be one (though I don’t think he’s ever on page) he has adequately provided for his children and was engaged in their education. Mr. Musgrove is another, who promotes his daughters’ happiness and isn’t mercenary about it. Mr. Dashwood sounds like he did his best, but he dies (and joins the pantheon of good Jane Austen mothers who are also dead). Then we have Mr. Bennet (checked out, insults his wife and children frequently), General Tilney (verbally abusive, mercenary), Mr. Woodhouse (smothering, enabling, hypochondriac), and Sir Walter (vain idiot).

Sir Thomas is an interesting case. It seems like he actually wants to do the right thing and often even knows what the right thing is: “Sir Thomas, seeing how much she needed encouragement, tried to be all that was conciliating: but he had to work against a most untoward gravity of deportment”, as in, he sees Fanny needs to be comforted but he can’t do it in a way she can appreciate. He is right that Fanny should be raised carefully, but he allows everyone to push this idea way too far and squash her. He is right to offer Maria an “out” from her engagement, but then doesn’t press the matter far enough because of his own ambitions.

Unlike Mr. Bennet, Sir Thomas is active, he even used to test Fanny in English and French, but he also just gets it so wrong. His children hide their true natures from him, he is unaware of how much Mrs. Norris is poisoning his children’s minds, and he doesn’t seem to know what to do with Tom. So I actually do pity him in some ways, because he actually tried. He doesn’t just throw up his hands and give up, he brings Tom with him to Antigua to try and straighten him out.

Sir Thomas’s reasons for wanting Fanny to marry Henry are also complex, I think he does think it’s the best thing for her (and he has no idea what happened during the play) but he also wants to be relieved of the obligation to provide for Fanny. He basically becomes Mrs. Bennet for a while, scheming to get the two together, and pushing her cruelly towards Henry. Sending her to Portsmouth to break her into accepting was awful. 

But in the end, Sir Thomas is redeemed. He realizes that Fanny is the daughter he always wanted, he discovers his errors with his children and he does try to make up for the way Fanny was treated. Mr. Bennet doesn’t have the same arc, he is sorry for a moment about Lydia and then goes right back to making jokes. The rest of the bad fathers don’t learn a darn thing. I like Sir Thomas, despite his faults, because he grows. 

One last note about Sir Thomas: as a member of parliament, he will either have to attend his own daughter’s divorce hearing or sit it out (which would be noted). I can’t even imagine. Would you like to sit in a room of your peers and learn about all the adulterous sex your daughter had? He really does suffer for his mistakes in a way that no other parent in Jane Austen does!

#sir thomas #Jane Austen #mansfield Park #bad fathers #Fanny price #Mr. Bennet #All the good parents are dead #I will give Sir Thomas a C- on fathering #redemtion arcs #Mr. Bennet is such a bad father #Sir Thomas as Mrs. Bennet