Jane Austen and LeisureJane Austen's novels portray a leisured society of gentlemen and ladies who do not need to work. Even the minority of clergymen, soldiers and sailors - men with professions - are almost never seen working. Jane Austen herself, despite responsibility for some domestic tasks, wrote as a woman of leisure. Yet leisure, the distinguishing mark of a gentleman, was not meant to be an excuse for idleness. The proper use of leisure to fulfil duties, to read and to think, and above all to pursue social relations in a world where family and marriage for the propertied was of central importance, was a vital test of character. |
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Page vii
... Bath , Bath , engraving by H. S. Storer , 1818. Jane Austen referred to its being painted in a letter of October 1813 . 4 Sydney House , Bath , engraving by H. O. Neill , 1818. The Austens lived opposite at 4 Sydney Place between 1801 ...
... Bath , Bath , engraving by H. S. Storer , 1818. Jane Austen referred to its being painted in a letter of October 1813 . 4 Sydney House , Bath , engraving by H. O. Neill , 1818. The Austens lived opposite at 4 Sydney Place between 1801 ...
Page x
... Bath City Council ; Country Life Picture Library ; Stephen Crook , Librarian , Berg Collection , New York Public Library : David Eveleigh , Bristol City Council ; David Gilson ; the Hampshire Record Office ; John Dixon Hunt ; Helen ...
... Bath City Council ; Country Life Picture Library ; Stephen Crook , Librarian , Berg Collection , New York Public Library : David Eveleigh , Bristol City Council ; David Gilson ; the Hampshire Record Office ; John Dixon Hunt ; Helen ...
Page xiv
... Bath or one of the other spas ( and later the seaside resorts ) ; they took their wives and daughters to assemblies , ball- rooms and pleasure gardens ; they gambled away fortunes at cards in their clubs or lost large sums of money at ...
... Bath or one of the other spas ( and later the seaside resorts ) ; they took their wives and daughters to assemblies , ball- rooms and pleasure gardens ; they gambled away fortunes at cards in their clubs or lost large sums of money at ...
Page xvi
... Bath , Weymouth or Brighton can easily become locations of impropriety for the Willoughbys , Wickhams and Lydia Bennets who lack the moral strength to resist their allure . Jane Austen herself was brought up in the country , among the ...
... Bath , Weymouth or Brighton can easily become locations of impropriety for the Willoughbys , Wickhams and Lydia Bennets who lack the moral strength to resist their allure . Jane Austen herself was brought up in the country , among the ...
Page xvii
... Bath in 1837 and was eventually made Admiral of the Fleet ; Charles , who rose to the rank of Rear - Admiral , died of cholera while on active service at the age of seventy - three . Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775. Writing on ...
... Bath in 1837 and was eventually made Admiral of the Fleet ; Charles , who rose to the rank of Rear - Admiral , died of cholera while on active service at the age of seventy - three . Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775. Writing on ...
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amusement assemblies aunt Austen-Leigh ball Bath Bennet brother Captain Wentworth cards Cassandra characters charade Charles Chawton Country Dancing course daughter delightful Donwell Edmund eighteenth century Elton Emma Emma Watson Emma's Fanny Burney feel Frank Churchill gardens give Godmersham Harriet Henry heroine Highbury hunting Ibid James Edward Jane Austen Jane Austen Society Jane Fairfax John kind Knightley Knightley's Lady Bertram later Lefroy leisure letter lived London look Lord Lybbe Powys Lyme Mansfield Park Marianne marry Martha Lloyd Mary Crawford Mary Lloyd Miss Bates moral needlework never niece night Northanger Abbey novel party perhaps pianoforte play pleasure poem popular Pride and Prejudice resort Sanditon scene seaside Sense and Sensibility sister social Steventon taste theatre theatricals thing Thomas Tilney Tom Bertram verse Weston wife woman Woodhouse writing young ladies