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 xvii
... feeling of deference natural to a loving child towards a kind elder sister . Something of this feeling always remained ; and even in the maturity of her powers , and in the enjoyment of increasing success , she would still speak of ...
... feeling of deference natural to a loving child towards a kind elder sister . Something of this feeling always remained ; and even in the maturity of her powers , and in the enjoyment of increasing success , she would still speak of ...
Page 7
... feel more & more how much we have to do . And how little time.'11 Since Bedford House was No. 11 Henrietta Street , they did not have far to go ; but the next morning before breakfast they went all the way up to New Bond Street to look ...
... feel more & more how much we have to do . And how little time.'11 Since Bedford House was No. 11 Henrietta Street , they did not have far to go ; but the next morning before breakfast they went all the way up to New Bond Street to look ...
Page 19
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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