General Incivility

From Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice:

Elizabeth Bennet: "Is not general incivility the very essence of love?"

 Today demands a Pride and Prejudice quote.  Today, the greatest film adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel is re-released on DVD in a restored condition.  Mine shipped last night.  I cannot wait to get it, play it on our big flatscreen and revel in its very Firth-ness!  (And the price is pretty incredible too!)

Sleepless in Manchester

From Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton:

"A sleepless bed is a haunted place."

I have often had this same thought but could never have expressed it as well and as simply as Gaskell has here.

So apt...

From Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton:

"...she could not abide fire-arms, they were so apt to shoot people."

This should really be the slogan of all of the gun-control advocates....

books and dancing

I love Elizabeth Bennet. I'm re-reading Pride and Prejudice, for the hundredth time, with a group of friends who have never read it. We're on Chapter 18 of the first volume and I'm already telling them this is my favorite chapter. Of course, I'll likely tell them another is my favorite and have probably already told them that a previous was a favorite too.

But when Lizzy and Darcy dance together for the first time at the Netherfield ball, their conversation is fire and ice, electricity, fireworks...amazing. I could copy the whole conversation here but instead I'll just pull one of my favorite Lizzy one-liners. This one proves that sometimes she allows herself to just be a young girl, enjoying the company of handsome men.

"I cannot talk of books in a ball-room; my head is always full of something else."

Sweet Sixteen

From Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton

"...trust a girl of sixteen for knowing it well if she is pretty; concerning her plainness she may be ignorant."

Gaskell certainly describes even most modern 16-year-old girls perfectly!

Long letters

From chapter 10 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice:

"...a person who can write a long letter, with ease, cannot write ill."

I have loved this quote for so long. We are a modern people who love all things concise. I've never been able to write anything but long so I'm very happy to have Ms. Austen's approval. I suppose this approval actually comes from Miss Bingley, but I'll take what I can get!

Complete truth

Emma by Jane Austen

"Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken."

Complete truth...what's that? Between out-and-out lies, deception, white lies, agenda, bad information, bending the truth, softening-the-blow and propaganda; I'm very sure Miss Austen was right.