#jane austen: genius

[bethanydelleman]

It's such a small moment, but the fact that Mrs. Norris tries to get Tom to play cards by suggesting they will up the ante for him, but only against Dr. Grant, is such a complex and horrible thing

“My dear Tom,” cried his aunt soon afterwards, “as you are not dancing, I dare say you will have no objection to join us in a rubber; shall you?” Then leaving her seat, and coming to him to enforce the proposal, added in a whisper, “We want to make a table for Mrs. Rushworth, you know. Your mother is quite anxious about it, but cannot very well spare time to sit down herself, because of her fringe. Now, you and I and Dr. Grant will just do; and though we play but half-crowns, you know, you may bet half-guineas with him.”

Firstly, Mrs. Norris must be aware that Tom has a gambling problem, she was around when Sir Thomas sold the Mansfield living. In order to flatter Mrs. Rushworth with a game, she is tempting Tom with his principle vice. In fact, this even proves she knows because she's using it against him.

Second, she constantly talks about how Sir Thomas is in financial peril, Fanny cannot have a horse! But she sees nothing wrong with Tom gambling a significant amount of money for her own ends, which proves a good deal of her frugality is self-serving or pointedly cruel.

Third, much like she offered Henry's carriage to get scratched up on the way to Sotherton, she offers Dr. Grant's money against Tom's but indicates that she will still play for a lower amount. While she wants to tempt Tom to play, she will not spend her own money.

Fourth (speculation), Mrs. Norris hates Dr. Grant and is probably asking Tom to play so that she has a better chance to beat him. We know Sir Thomas doesn't want his wife as a partner in whist.

Mansfield Park is so amazing because this tiny, seemingly insignificant moments reveal so much about each character!

[diana-daphne]

Best book ever written, nothing will ever be funnier than this, Jane Austen I love you more than anyone else in the world <3

[alasforher]

red, white & royal blue (2023) dir. matthew lópez / perfume genius (orig. elvis presley), ‘can’t help falling in love’ / william shakespeare, as you like it / casey mcquiston, red, white & royal blue / perfume genius (orig. elvis presley), ‘can’t help falling in love’ / pride & prejudice (2005) dir. joe wright / casey mcquiston, red, white & royal blue / red, white & royal blue (2023) dir. matthew lópez / pride & prejudice (2005) dir. joe wright

[pristina-nomine]

Tagged by @pasdetrois to list my 9 favorite books of 2023 or 9 books on my 2024 tbr list ✨ Thank you so much! Those up there are my favs from last year's.

Tagging: @marthanielsn @artemideaddams @mathilda-1819-1820 @girldante @solostinmysea @thepointlessmasterpiece

[thelonelybrilliance]

shoutout (derogatory) to the one critic Maria and I love to drag re: Jane Austen, who wrote a bunch of muddled, tortured reviews of her books but ALSO an "ode" in which he lavished her with unwilling praise and also begged the universe to provide a second Jane Austen to properly attack and critique her

[itspileofgoodthings]

writing is so embarrassing because it’s like “so here’s this self-insert for ME”

and it like. almost always is that. all the time.

[universoausteniano]

"Solte as rédeas da sua fantasia e entregue-se à sua imaginação, para os vôos mais arrojados".

- Jane Austen (Orgulho e Preconceito)

[ceaselesslyinlove]

once again very overwhelmed with how obvious it is that the heroine of emma, with any other author, really should be jane fairfax or even harriet smith, but miss austen was like “no 😌💅 this story shall be about the rich spoiled girl who only i like and despite her flaws, she deserves a happy ending too”

[metamehta]

You're telling me I spent all this time aspiring to be Elizabeth Bennet when I could have been aiming to be Mrs.Allen?

[solibrie]

never watch a movie. it will make your brain go crazy

[moss-flesh]

i will never not absolutely lose it when i hear/read the line

“if i loved you less, i might be able to talk about it more.”

JANE AUSTEN YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD

[bethanydelleman]

"How very differently we feel!—Not think they will do each other any good! This will certainly be the beginning of one of our quarrels about Emma, Mr. Knightley.” (Mrs. Weston, Ch 5)

“We think so very differently on this point, Mr. Knightley, that there can be no use in canvassing it. We shall only be making each other more angry." (Emma, Ch 8)

Jane Austen is brilliant. How similar are these two statements! How well the author shows how Emma has taken on some of Mrs. Weston's manner and style, which makes sense since Emma was raised by her.

Both of them basically say, "let's agree to disagree" which of course Mr. Knightley does not accept because he's certain he's right on both points (Emma and Harriet will be a damaging friendship and Emma influenced Harriet incorrectly).

Emma and Mrs. Weston, rightly or wrongly, stand up to Mr. Knightley. Yet, both women also attempt to smooth over the argument and make peace. They are both used to Knightley, this is how Mrs. Weston has taught Emma to deal with him.

[someinstant]

OP, my friend, you will never get over it. Never. And what a gift, right? To have this wry, perceptive voice from more than two centuries ago speaking to us about how it feels to be overlooked and belittled and misunderstood by the people who should love us best, how ridiculous and petty we can be to each other, how love takes work and patience and understanding and resolve, and how forgiveness and grace can be such small human acts and still feel miraculous.

So I just read Persuasion for the first time last weekend and oh my GOD I am fucking feral about it. The sharp asides! The social commentary on class and outer presentation versus inner character! The ABSOLUTE ANGSTY PERFECTION that is Anne/Frederick!!! I went through the entire Ao3 tag and watched the 1995 movie twice, and I STILL cannot get over it!

[pristina-nomine]

Like Amelia in Lovers' Vows, Fanny is unmoved by the temptations of wealth, status and sexual conquest. When she is given the rare opportunity to express her feelings, she does not hold back, as is shown in her gentle, but spirited, defence of her right to her 'negative’:

I should have thought …. that every woman must have felt the possibility of a man's not being approved, not being loved by some one of her sex, at least, let him be ever so generally agreeable. Let him have all the perfections in the world, I think it ought not to be set down as certain, that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself…. In my situation, it would have been the extreme of vanity to be forming expectation on Mr Crawford… How then was I to be - to be in love with him the moment he said he was with me? How was I to have an attachment at his service, as soon as it was asked for?"' (MP, p. 353)

This speech is remarkable for its encapsulation of the paradoxes of courship conduct for women, particularly those of a low status. Fanny's ‘settled dislike' of Crawford is not enough for Sir Thomas, or indeed Edmund, because Crawford is perceived as a socially acceptable ‘catch'; yet, paradoxically, it is precisely Fanny's lowly social status which precludes her from forming any expectations of Henry in the first place. Furthermore, when she is condescended to be noticed by a man of means, a man whom she has no right to consider in the first place, she is immediately expected to switch on her feelings, 'as soon as it was asked for’. […] Fanny, of course, is not in Amelia’s position of choosing her own husband, but she nevertheless exercises her right to refusal, as do most of Jane Austen's heroines. […] Austen has Henry Tilney advocating ‘women's power of refusal' in Northanger Abbey, but in Pride and Prejudice she conveys the limitations of a woman's 'no' in Mr Collins's and Darcy's refusal to accept Elizabeth's refusal. […] In Mansfield Park, Henry's reluctance to accept Fanny's refusal is proof of his gross selfishness. Even when she is softened by his conduct at Portsmouth, she still hopes to be released from his attentions: 'might not it be fairly supposed, that he would not much longer persevere in a suit so distressing to her?' (MP, p. 414).

- Paula Byrne, The Genius of Jane Austen. Her Love of Theatre and Why She Is a Hit in Hollywood

[fictionadventurer]

Maybe Jane Austen's real genius was that, unlike other authors at the time, she didn't have long sections where characters share their backstory. Or rather, when she did it, she set it up like a mystery so we'd want to know the backstory.

Instead of having a character be like, "Here's three chapters about my life," soon after showing up in the novel, she'd sprinkle little clues through the story that make us wonder, "What's Colonel Brandon's deal?" and then closer to the end of the story, Colonel Brandon would tell us what his deal was. We'd wonder "Why does Mr. Darcy do all those horrible things?" and then he'd give an explanation that includes a lot of backstory.

And these infodumps always come in response to significant moments of the story. She'd engage our minds and our emotions and then give us the infodump at a point when we care about the information it contains. Compared to some other authors (even some that came long after) it seems like a significant innovation.

[jupitersmegrim]

Volume I, Chapter XVIII has been posted.

Town and Country

Fandom: Pride and Prejudice Words: 44,109 Status: WIP Pairings: Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy; Jane Bennet/Charles Bingley (background) Rating: General Audiences Setting: Regency

Summary: Elizabeth Bennet is South Asian.

Sample:

When an Englishman desires activity, inactivity, change, stasis, simplicity, intricacy, strangeness, familiarity, or the pleasure of managing, of not managing, or of having his own way, he will look—very naturally—to India. However little calculated that land, in itself, may be to fulfill these little caprices, its ideal is so fixed in his mind, that he is sure to find something within the stores of its ancient civilisation to answer to his notions.

Such was the case with Mr. Edward Bennet. The second son of a minor country squire, he was faced, at his majority, with the necessity of fixing upon some course, which would enable him to make his own way in the world. From a scholarly bent, which gave him a good deal of inborn curiosity; and because the idleness of habits, which he had heard to be common in the East, attracted him more than the manly rigour required for the practice of the legal or ecclesiastical professions in England; from these reasons, and perhaps still others, he left a country happily enlightened by sound philosophy, and the only true revelation, for one burdened with superstition and gross idolatry: he joined, in short, in the service of the East India Company at Bombay, soon after it was ceded to the English, and before he had attained his sixteenth year. Once his innate indolence had overcome the exigencies of the journey thither, it was not often further disturbed by any requirements of his post. His work as a writer for the Company kept him largely within its settlements in the western part of the state of Hindoostan; on the rare occasions when he left Bombay, it was only for Chaul or Bassein.

Mr. Edward Bennet had always intended to marry upon returning to his native England, when his contributions of learning to the Company would have earned him an independence. He was yet in India, however, when he was nearing forty; he grew increasingly susceptible to beauty, and ripe for picking; he was caught at last by a girl with gentle manners, a generous dowry, and remarkable beauty (so far as we can reconcile beauty with the olive complexion). She was the daughter of a Mahomedan merchant and moneylender, who had much to do with the India Company, and was very pleased to furnish one of its votaries with this his most precious good.