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 xi
... matters or discussing estate business with William Larkins or Robert Martin ; Mrs Bennet plans her dinners ; and Mrs Norris spends her visit to Sotherton enthusias- tically inquiring into the domestic arrangements with the housekeeper ...
... matters or discussing estate business with William Larkins or Robert Martin ; Mrs Bennet plans her dinners ; and Mrs Norris spends her visit to Sotherton enthusias- tically inquiring into the domestic arrangements with the housekeeper ...
Page xii
... matters were closely linked to economic ones . Liberty was dependent not on the claims of natural rights but on the rule of law ; and if the general well - being of society was to be maintained , the proper object for a man's talents ...
... matters were closely linked to economic ones . Liberty was dependent not on the claims of natural rights but on the rule of law ; and if the general well - being of society was to be maintained , the proper object for a man's talents ...
Page xviii
... matters were made worse by Mr Austen's death in 1805. After the fertile period of writing at Steventon , she did very little work in Bath : apart from the revision of Susan as Northanger Abbey and the unfinished fragment The Watsons ...
... matters were made worse by Mr Austen's death in 1805. After the fertile period of writing at Steventon , she did very little work in Bath : apart from the revision of Susan as Northanger Abbey and the unfinished fragment The Watsons ...
Page 3
... matter , at least in Emma's ungenerous view ) ; and a Mrs Goddard could keep her school and still be regarded by Mr Woodhouse as a very respectable old friend . But such people were able to decide for themselves how they occupied their ...
... matter , at least in Emma's ungenerous view ) ; and a Mrs Goddard could keep her school and still be regarded by Mr Woodhouse as a very respectable old friend . But such people were able to decide for themselves how they occupied their ...
Page 4
... matter ; and it is a measure of the seriousness with which Sir Thomas Bertram regards his responsibility towards his niece that he goes to the trouble of giving an elaborate ball for her . Though all Jane Austen's characters belong to ...
... matter ; and it is a measure of the seriousness with which Sir Thomas Bertram regards his responsibility towards his niece that he goes to the trouble of giving an elaborate ball for her . Though all Jane Austen's characters belong to ...
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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