GLORIED Anne and Henrietta, finding themselves the earliest of the party the next morning, agreed to stroll down to the sea before breakfast. They went to the sands to watch the flowing of the tide, which a fine south-easterly breeze was bringing in with all the grandeur which so flat a shore admitted. They praised... Continue Reading →
True merit
MERIT With so much true merit and true love, and no want of fortune and friends, the happiness of the married cousins must appear as secure as earthly happiness can be. Equally formed for domestic life, and attached to country pleasures, their home was the home of affection and comfort; The Narrator on Rev. &... Continue Reading →
Lamented knowledge
LAMENTED In the present instance, she confessed and lamented her want of knowledge, declared that she would give anything in the world to be able to draw; and a lecture on the picturesque immediately followed, in which his instructions were so clear that she soon began to see beauty in everything admired by him, and... Continue Reading →
Ill-judged measure
MEASURE "Ah, my dear, as Perry says, where health is at stake, nothing else should be considered; and if one is to travel, there is not much to chuse between forty miles and an hundred. Better not move at all, better stay in London altogether than travel forty miles to get into a worse air.... Continue Reading →
No conscience
CONSCIENCE "A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others." Marianne Dashwood on Colonel Brandon, Sense & Sensibility, Chapter 31 This is a profound statement from a young lady who herself, has nothing to do with her own time! Isn't this like calling... Continue Reading →
Solitary elegance
ELEGANCEÂ I had great amusement among the pictures (Somerset House); and the driving about, the carriage being open, was very pleasant. I liked my solitary elegance very much, and was ready to laugh all the time at my being where I has. I could not but feel that I had a naturally small right to... Continue Reading →
Cold insipidity
INSIPIDITY There was nothing in any of the party which could recommend them as companions to the Dashwoods; but the cold insipidity of Lady Middleton was so particularly repulsive, that in comparison of it the gravity of Colonel Brandon, and even the boisterous mirth of Sir John and his mother-in-law, was interesting. Lady Middleton seemed... Continue Reading →
Cheerful prognostics
PROGNOSTICS Jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback, and her mother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad day. Her hopes were answered: Jane had not been gone long before it rained hard. Her sisters were uneasy for her, but her mother was delighted. The rain continued the whole... Continue Reading →
Dignified situation
DIGNIFIEDÂ Sir Walter had taken a very good house in Camden Place, a lofty dignified situation, such as becomes a man of consequence; and both he and Elizabeth were settled there, much to their satisfaction. Sir Walter Elliot, Persuasion, Chapter 15 I find it amusing that Sir Walter chose a location for his 'retrenchment' home... Continue Reading →
Earnestness of sincerity
EARNESTNESS She (Fanny Price) told him that she did not love him (Henry Crawford), could not love him, was sure she never should love him; that such a change was quite impossible; that the subject was most painful to her; that she must entreat him never to mention it again, to allow her to leave... Continue Reading →
Much perplexity
PERPLEXITY To compose a letter which might at once do justice to her sentiments and her situation, convey gratitude without servile regret, be guarded without coldness, and honest without resentment - a letter which Eleanor might not be pained by the perusal of - and, above all, which she might not blush herself, if Henry... Continue Reading →
Insufferable woman
INSUFFERABLE "Insufferable woman!" was her immediate exclamation. "Worse than I had supposed. Absolutely insufferable! Knightley! I could not have believed it. Knightley! never seen him in her life before, and call him Knightley! and discover that he is a gentleman! A little upstart, vulgar being, with her Mr. E., and her caro sposo, and her... Continue Reading →