“It is only a novel… or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.” (Photo: Actress Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen; a scene from the film “Becoming Jane”)
I can listen no longer in silence. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. I have loved none but you.
There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.
Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.
I am very strong. Nothing ever fatigues me, but doing what I do not like.
The world had made him extravagant and vain - extravagance and vanity had made him cold-hearted and selfish. Vanity, while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another, had involved him in a real attachment, which extravagance, or at least its offspring necessity, had required to be sacrificed. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment.
from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Sense will always have attractions for me.
“Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen. Sisters Marianne and Elinor couldn’t be more different. Marianne is desperately romantic and longing to meet the man of her dreams, while Elinor takes a far more cautious approach to love.
When the two of them move to the country with their family, miles away from London, there is little prospect of them finding anyone at all, But then they meet their new neighbours – including kind Edward Ferrers and the good-looking, dangerous Willoughby – and it seems happiness may be just round the corner after all. Things aren’t always as they appear to be, though. Soon, both sisters will need to decide who to trust in their search for love: their family, their new friends, their heads – or their hearts?
“Persuasion” by Jane Austen. Written during Jane Austen’s race against failing health, Persuasion tells the story of Anne Elliot, a woman who-at twenty-seven-is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years ago, she was persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. When Anne and Frederick meet again, he has acquired both, but still feels the sting of her rejection. A brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, Austen’s last completed novel is also a movingly told love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.
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