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 6
... asked in to tea , as the Westons , Frank Churchill , Miss Bates and Jane Fairfax are , when they happen to meet Emma and Harriet and Mr Knightley returning from a walk after dinner ; or they might be invited formally , quite separately ...
... asked in to tea , as the Westons , Frank Churchill , Miss Bates and Jane Fairfax are , when they happen to meet Emma and Harriet and Mr Knightley returning from a walk after dinner ; or they might be invited formally , quite separately ...
Page 13
... asked up into the drawing - room , that call had to be repaid , though a call ' in form ' , which required only a short stay and was made earlier than calls on closer friends ( though still not before about three o'clock ) , could be ...
... asked up into the drawing - room , that call had to be repaid , though a call ' in form ' , which required only a short stay and was made earlier than calls on closer friends ( though still not before about three o'clock ) , could be ...
Page 14
... asked whether any message had been left for her ; and on his saying no , had felt for a card , but said she had none about her , and went away.36 The indirect speech quoting a footman , the anonymity of the ' gentleman and lady ' , and ...
... asked whether any message had been left for her ; and on his saying no , had felt for a card , but said she had none about her , and went away.36 The indirect speech quoting a footman , the anonymity of the ' gentleman and lady ' , and ...
Page 43
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Page 54
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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