François Gérard (1770-1837, French) ~ Marie Laczinska (1789-1817) Comtesse Walewska, puis Comtesse d'Ornano, 1810

[Source: basedescollections.musee-armee.fr]

I will add to the foils: Mrs. Smith's husband squandered all their money and left her destitute, another possible fate of Anne since Wentworth had not yet proved he was capable of saving.

But yeah, Lady Russell was sensible. She may have also been overly class conscious, but that doesn't make her wrong.

Captain Wentworth had no fortune. He had been lucky in his profession; but spending freely, what had come freely, had realized nothing. But he was confident that he should soon be rich: full of life and ardour, he knew that he should soon have a ship, and soon be on a station that would lead to everything he wanted. He had always been lucky; he knew he should be so still. Such confidence, powerful in its own warmth, and bewitching in the wit which often expressed it, must have been enough for Anne; but Lady Russell saw it very differently. His sanguine temper, and fearlessness of mind, operated very differently on her. She saw in it but an aggravation of the evil. It only added a dangerous character to himself. He was brilliant, he was headstrong. Lady Russell had little taste for wit, and of anything approaching to imprudence a horror. She deprecated the connexion in every light.

It's interesting to me, Persuasion is the last novel Austen wrote and she had this trend prior of "W" being a villain (Wickham and Willoughby) and this paragraph about Wentworth makes me think about her other dubious men. He's gambled or spent all his money away, just like the other two, he's confident he'll get more. Wentworth and Henry Tilney are the only heroes with wit, but only Wentworth has this magnetic charm that seems to draw every woman in the room. Very Wickham of him, recall how drawn every female was to him when he came into Meryton. Wentworth feels a lot like Austen's villains, especially at first.

It makes me feel that Lady Russell was right to be worried. This sort of magnetic person, with very pretty words but no substance to back it up. It could have been a Willoughby-esq whirlwind romance and left Anne with nothing.

Same girl, same 😔

What about the Austen heroes?

So the current professions of the Austen heroes are Trust-Fund Baby (Darcy, Bingley, Knightley, Colonel Brandon) and clergyman (Tilney, Ferrars, Bertram) and of course, naval officer (Wentworth).

Darcy's personality and insane degree of stable wealth makes his character pretty hard to write without him being a trust fund baby. So I will not assign him a profession, he's managing the generational family wealth.

George Knightley - runs a small but successful factory that is basically the only industry in his small town. Cash poor because he's always reinvesting in the company. Robert Martin is the floor manager.

Charles Bingley - his father struck it rich in the dot.com era and then died. He's inherited most of the fortune. Has no idea what to do with it, so he's been in university for 6 years.

Colonel Brandon - did four tours in Afghanistan before his brother died and he took over the indebted family chain of hardware stores. He's finally gotten the finances straightened out and the chain is once again profitable (with 100% less tax fraud).

Edward Ferrars - went to a super prestigious university because his mother donated to it, has a degree in Environmental Science much to her chagrin. Wants to work at a non-profit or do his PhD but his mom won't help him with the cost of living so he lives at home, doesn't work, and is miserable.

Edmund Bertram - clergyman or civil servant

Frederick Wentworth - I'm not sure what to do with him, because he needs an uncertain, dangerous career that can also strike rich, not sure if we have a modern analogue... oh it's athlete. He's an athlete who actually made it big and got rich. You pick the sport.

Henry Tilney - this one is so tricky! Because you see Henry Tilney is a nepo baby, but he seems to actually enjoy his profession. So I guess he has a corporate job at Tilney Inc. but he does like it (despite the CEO)

Single man who just moved into Cranford: hi

*the Cranford ladies*

It's because of the Broody McBrooderson portrayal of Thornton in the 2004 mini reminds people of Broody McBroodface Darcy in 1995. That Thronton was just black clothes, punching workers, and staring dramatically out of windows.

The only way that "North and South is Pride and Prejudice plus labor disputes" makes even a little bit of sense is if we assume Margaret is in the Darcy role. (She's the outsider with an upper-class upbringing and a proud bearing who's a bit prejudiced against the lower-class town she moves to).

Beyond that, what are the similarities? A romance with two people who initially dislike/misunderstand each other where the guy makes a proposal halfway through that the girl is offended by? The connection is flimsy at best. Even calling the proposal a similarity is a stretch, because she's offended not because she has anything against the man, but because he misinterpreted her actions as romantic interest. Beyond that there are almost no points of similarity. So I'm going to keep being frustrated at the comparison.

I want to set up a cast of historical characters and then kill them off using meticulously calculated statistics based on the best possible historical evidence.

"I can't believe you killed off my favourite character! How could you?"

slams massive collection of spreadsheets down on the table "A man of his age surviving WWI and the Spanish Flu? Please. The sheets have spoken."

Trying to sleep and was looking at books and that eventually led me to think of Pride and Prejudice and yk what moment we need to appreciate more?

That scene where Caroline is doing her pick me shit and joking with Darcy about Elizabeth's pretty eyes and she's like when you guys get your marriage portrait done do you think any painter could do her eyes justice?

And our boy Fitzy doesn't even HESITATE he's like I think a painter would do a great job at getting her eyelashes and the way they look in the sunlight and it's just like

MY GUY HAD U ALREADY BEEN THINKING ABOUT THAT??? U HAD THE ANSWER LOCKED AND LOADED WERE U ON YE OLDE GOOGLE LOOKING UP WEDDING PORTRAIT ARTISTS NEAR ME??? DID U HAVE A REGENCY ERA PINTERST BOARD OF UR DREAM WEDDING TO LIZZY ALREADY MADE UP????

Admiral Croft wishing that all women were named the same thing to make life simpler:

"...But first of all, you must tell me the name of the young lady I am going to talk about. That young lady, you know, that we have all been so concerned for. The Miss Musgrove, that all this has been happening to. Her Christian name: I always forget her Christian name."

Anne had been ashamed to appear to comprehend so soon as she really did; but now she could safely suggest the name of "Louisa."

"Ay, ay, Miss Louisa Musgrove, that is the name. I wish young ladies had not such a number of fine Christian names. I should never be out if they were all Sophys..."

Bluebeard by Marjolaine Roller

An excerpt from the end of a letter where Mary Shelley rejects the advances of her long-time friend Edward Trelawny, 26 July 1831:

"My name will never be Trelawny. I am not so young as I was when you first knew me, but I am as proud. I must have the entire affection, devotion, and, above all, the solicitous protection of any one who would win me. You belong to womenkind in general, and Mary Shelley will never be yours.

I write in haste, but I will write soon again, more at length. You shall have your copies the moment I receive them. Believe me, with all gratitude and affection,

Yours,

M. W. Shelley."

Not to be a Victor Frankenstein defender but how many of us haven't fantasized about getting really sick and avoiding all of our problems/responsibilitys for a few months

It's not news or anything but I love this Elizabeth/Darcy exchange so much:

“Implacable resentment is a shade in a character. But you have chosen your fault well. I really cannot laugh at it. You are safe from me.” “There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.” “And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.” “And yours,” he replied, with a smile, “is wilfully to misunderstand them.” “Do let us have a little music,” cried Miss Bingley, tired of a conversation in which she had no share.

I just finished reading Sense and Sensibility and I loved it sooo much it was soooo good, its my third Austen book ( I've already read Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion) and so far Marianne and Elinore are my favourite protagonists!!! ( Also I have a sweet spot for the sisters trope).

[spoilers ahead]

I LITERALLY SCREAMED when Edward told Elinore he wasn't married to Lucy, I totally didn't expect that twist at all!! I also found this book so different from the others I've read before, mostly cause I found it less slow paced maybe? Idk if this makes sense. Also I loved the character development of both of the sisters it was so well written (the entire cast was tbh). And can we talk about the parallels between Edward and Willoughby???????? And the sweet kindness of Colonel Brandon????? AND how Elinore and Marianne were absolutely girlbosses through the entire book??? Austen slayed again

Ou, you got to read Sense & Sensibility unspoiled! Exciting. It's wonderful that you enjoyed it so much. I do find the writing style a bit different than Austen's later works, this was the first one she published.

The parallels between Edward & Willoughby are great. Edward stays true to his word even though it may cost his inheritance and Willoughby refuses to do the right thing to get his inheritance back! Willoughby gives up love for wealth and Edward does the opposite, twice! (well he gives up wealth for honour and then for love, but still). And yeah, Colonel Brandon is a total sweetheart. I hope he is very happy with Marianne for a long time.

Feel free to send me more excited reviews of Austen, I love reading them. Share the joy!

If the Austen heroines lived today (and had to work outside of the home), what jobs do you think they would have?

If we look at the heroine's relative incomes, it's likely that Catherine Morland, Fanny Price, and the Dashwoods would require professions, as clergyman and naval marine don't pay that well today and the Dashwoods lost their inheritance. Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, and Anne Elliot are all trust fund babies, though Elizabeth and Anne would likely get jobs since their families are blowing all their money and they're not idiots. Emma is the only one who genuinely would not need to work, even in a modern context. I am not going to assign her a profession, I suspect if she existed in a similar context today she would manage her father's affairs, run the family company, and a charity, much like she does in the novel.

Catherine Morland - in university, is in a very general program and has no idea what to do with her life. Ends up in some sort of childcare career because she knows she's good at it but still scrolls through job pages imagining what else she could do. Writes very bad novels on the side.

Elinor Dashwood - public school art teacher, secure career path with a solid pay cheque, never even considered becoming an artist

Marianne Dashwood - concert pianist/piano instructor reluctantly, because piano playing doesn't pay well, failed lyricist. Has a very popular YouTube channel

Elizabeth Bennet - I see lawyer SO OFTEN in fan fiction, but I disagree. This observer of human nature is getting sucked into psychology and becoming a researcher. She'll realize how bad of a judge of character she can be pre-Darcy because now she has evidence. May become a therapist as well.

Anne Elliot - Anne is so intelligent, she can be whatever she wants. She's so good with kids too, maybe a pediatrician? She threw herself into education after the Wentworth thing.

Fanny Price - the Bertrams paid for her university education and she chose the most guaranteed source of income: accounting. Companies will always need accountants and she can help support her family.

Jane Bennet - I can see her also choosing a very practical career but then dropping out of the workforce to be a stay-at-home mom. Charles has enough money to make that work.

Agree to all of this. I've seen that "I never knew love before" one and it makes me angry. It's just a different love, it doesn't need to be better or worse. It just all feeds back into this idea that you have a soulmate, so everyone else has to be worse somehow even if you were really happy with them. I just don't get that mindset.

But from this poll at least it seems to just be a vocal minority.

I thought this was just an amusing Jane Austen Fan Fiction/Marianne Dashwood thing but apparently IT IS NOT, it's a thing thing. So...

I wrote a fan fiction where every time Darcy or Elizabeth marries the "wrong" person, they die instantly, because in every FF if either of them marries anyone else, they either die or are horribly abusive or something. Often E&D will even emerge from the marriage with their virginity intact because of course, sex in a previous marriage is just retroactive cheating right? I thought this was a weirld "Our Dear Couple" P&P thing.

Anyway, no, turns out this isn't an odd JAFF quirk, there are a significant group of people who will not accept a love story where one party already was in love and then lost their significant other. Which feels so wild to me because um, this totally happens? (especially in history) Also, you can totally fall in love twice.

But then maybe I'm the strange one because I don't mind soulmate sort of fiction, but I do not believe in soulmates at all. Actually I find the whole idea incomprehensible because how do you really know? Did you miss out on some perfect happiness because you didn't marry the person you thought was your soulmate at 14? Who knows! I just watch these stories as what they are: fantasy.

I watched a show where a widow falls in love again after 7 years (to someone completely different from his wife in basically every way) and a bunch of people HATED it and I was like, "Why? What? How?" but then I realized that this is a thing. Huh.

I think finding love again is beautiful! It's rebirth.

yes mr rochester is an archetypal byronic hero but the sheer magnitude of jane eyre's weird girl energy cancels it out. to her he's just a normal guy