Nearly two months ago, we went into lockdown mode here in Virginia, due to Covid-19. As I had already been in a sort of quarantine with my knee injury since January (only going out for short errands where very little walking was required), I wondered how I would make it through more staying at home, plus adding a husband working from home and a daughter schooling from home.
It was clear what I needed: a project. That night, a couple of dear friends and I began texting back and forth about Jane Austen. After we chatted for a while, I knew I had my found my project: to re-read all seven of Jane Austen’s novels.
Years ago, I bought a beautiful 1,220-page volume of all of her novels (besides the unfinished Sanditon). For the next seven weeks, I would lug around this huge and heavy volume (this from a devoted Kindle user) with me everywhere – up and down the stairs, in and out of the house – with the goal of reading one novel a week.
I know there are those who are working full-time while also teaching their kids, and if you are one of those people, I salute you. You don’t have time for such a luxurious endeavor. But as someone with limited mobility and a teenager who pretty much takes care of herself, I could.
Would I like to be more active? Absolutely. Would I prefer to be more productive? Sure. But my reality was that at this point, I needed to be still. I couldn’t go out. It was settled. I would be quarantined with Jane Austen.
Therefore, I would never be alone. Far from it! From savoring the chemistry between Mr. Darcy and Lizzy to rolling my eyes over silly Lydia and roguish Wickham, laughing at witty Mr. Bennet, keeping company with Mrs. Bennet and her poor nerves and Mr. Collins and his effusive praise of Rosings Park. And that’s just in one novel, Pride and Prejudice (which will, always and forever, be my very favorite).
There is that scene in which Mrs. Bennet is trying to persuade Mr. Bennet to call upon Mr. Bingley, their new (single and rich) neighbor in the hopes of his falling in love with one of the five Bennet girls. And Mrs. Bennet is so contrary that she fusses at Kitty for coughing. It is only after Mr. Bennet reveals that he has already called upon Mr. Bingley that Mrs. Bennet is pacified. Then Mr. Bennet remarks, “Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose.”
And who can forget Mrs. Bennet and her tremblings and flutterings! “Tell him what a dreadful state I am in – that I am frightened out of my wits; and have such tremblings, such flutterings, all over me, such spasms in my side, and pains in my head, and such beatings at heart, that I can get no rest by night nor by day.”
I moved from that to Sense and Sensibility and reconnected with contemplative Elinor and the mysterious Mr. F. Interestingly enough, when I was first introduced to this novel as a teen, I identified with Marianne – her zest for life, her romantic sensibilities, her conviction that a true suitor should always read aloud with fervor and passion. That one must always wear one’s heart right on one’s puffy sleeve for all to see.
This time around, I found that I most admired Elinor. She is so steadfast. To be honest, Marianne annoyed me this time around. She is so self-centered, so full of drama. At my stage of life, I don’t have the energy for such drama. But, of course, she learns and grows throughout the novel, and that’s one thing I also discovered this time that I don’t think I have noticed before: how some of Austen’s characters really do learn and discover and grow.
Marianne, who once pokes fun at Elinor for her seriousness, learns all that Elinor has had to endure silently as a point of integrity, and she is embarrassed that she has been such a drama queen. She goes from wishing (out loud) that Elinor would be more like her to realizing she would do well to emulate Elinor’s character instead.
“Oh! Elinor,” she (Marianne) cried, “you have made me hate myself forever. How barbarous have I been to you! You, who have been my only comfort, who have borne with me in all my misery, who have seemed to be only suffering for me! Is this my gratitude? Is this the only return I can make you? Because your merit cries out upon myself, I have been trying to do it away.”
No one does snooty characters quite like Austen. Case in point: Mrs. John Dashwood and her stinginess toward John’s half sisters. She talks him out of doing much of anything for them, even though he promised his father on his deathbed that he would look out for them.
“But if you observe, people always live forever when there is any annuity to be paid them . . . . They will live so cheap! Their housekeeping will be nothing at all. They will have no carriage, no horses, hardly any servants; they will keep no company, and can have no expenses of any kind! Only conceive how comfortable they will be! Five hundred a year! I am sure I cannot imagine how they will spend half of it; and as to your giving them more, it is quite absurd to think of it. They will be much more able to give you something.”
And the character of Mrs. Jennings just delighted me to no end! I found myself laughing out loud at her antics and sayings. And also being full of gratitude at all of the Mrs. Jennings-like friends that I have had the pleasure to know over the years – joyful, generous, and unfailingly entertaining (and yes, a bit loud and intrusive at times, but mostly in good fun).
Next I visited Mansfield Park. The writing is brilliant as ever, and the characters nearly jump off the page. I’ve read somewhere that Jane Austen actually didn’t like the main character of this book, Fanny. She felt like she was “too good.” I think that’s why I really admire Fanny – because she is full of character and integrity. And even though she is basically looked down upon and mistreated by so many people, she really doesn’t hold grudges. She is honest when called upon for her opinion, but respectful. She is so unwavering in her convictions.
Austen is unparalleled an author for so many reasons, one of which I believe is her depiction of the ridiculousness in all of us. Her silly characters have the absolute funniest lines in all of her novels, but she really develops them so thoroughly that as we are reading about them, we recognize people we know, and also (gasp) maybe ourselves a bit too?
Mr. Rushworth, Maria Bertram’s fiancé, pretty much makes me laugh every time he opens his mouth to speak, particularly in the scenes where they are practicing for that ill-fated play. He keeps repeating, to anyone who will listen, that the part he will be playing, The Count, has “two and forty speeches, which is no trifle.”
Or Lady Bertram, who puts so little effort into anything, but assumes all of the good things in Fanny’s life spring from Lady Bertram’s one kind act of lending Fanny her maid to help her get ready for one party (for which Fanny was already completely ready before the maid even came to Fanny’s room).
“Yes, she does look very well,” was Lady Bertram’s placid reply. “Chapman helped her dress. I sent Chapman to her.” Not but that she was really pleased to have Fanny admired; but she was so much more struck with her own kindness in sending Chapman to her, that she could not get it out of her head.
Yes, Austen is masterful at character development, and I wonder if it’s because she observed real-life characters and wove some of those nice and not-so-nice traits into her characters, topped off with humor at our proclivity to be vain, self-centered, clueless, and even ridiculous from time to time. But also that we do have the capacity to grow and change. We’re not one dimensional, but many-layered beings who are not static but dynamic. That just around the bend, there is hope of redemption.
Emma was the next stop on my journey through Austen. Emma is a spirited caregiver to her hypochondriac father. After she successfully encourages her governess to get to know a good male friend in town, she can’t seem to help herself from meddling in the lives of others as well, trying to make that perfect match.
One of my favorite lines in Emma has always been when Emma roasts Miss Bates. Emma’s less-than-generous thoughts of the overly talkative Miss Bates come to the surface when they are playing a game in which everyone is asked to entertain Emma by sharing either one very clever thing, two moderately clever things, or three very dull things.
“Oh! Very well,” exclaimed Miss Bates, “then I need not be uneasy. ‘Three things very dull indeed.’ That will just do for me, you know. I shall be sure to say three dull things as soon as ever I open my mouth, shan’t I? Do you not all think I shall?”
Emma could not resist. “Ah! Ma’am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me – but you will be limited as to number – only three at once.”
This biting insult Mr. Knightley ascribes to Frank Churchill’s influence on his good friend, Emma. And when he confronts Emma with her unkindness, we all feel it. Mr. Knightley proves that truth spoken in love is effectual indeed.
“It was badly done, indeed! You, whom she had known from an infant, whom she had seen grow up from a period when her notice was an honor, to have you now, in thoughtless spirits, and the pride of the moment, laugh at her, humble her – and before her niece, too – and before others, many of whom (certainly some), would be entirely guided by your treatment of her.”
My next destination was Northanger Abbey. Austen uses a different tactic here than in her other novels in that she includes information ever so often from the perspective of a narrator. We see this narrator’s point of view of Catherine Morland in the first paragraph: No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. We are told that she is not overly pretty, smart, or impressive in any way.
But the narrator also tells us: Her heart was affectionate; her disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affectation of any kind – her manners just removed from the awkwardness and shyness of a girl; her person pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty – and her mind about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is.
Catherine is indeed innocent, and when she visits Bath with her neighbors, she meets a couple of friends who are manipulative and even outright dishonest at times. It does take her a while to figure this out, but she learns to stand up for herself and for the truth, and I wanted to cheer when she finally tells off John Thorpe, who has been bothering her and insisting that she has promised to marry him (when she clearly has done no such thing).
And we hear from the narrator about her happily ever after with the man she truly loves: To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well; and professing myself moreover convinced that the general’s unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment.
In reading Persuasion this time around, I was most struck by the usefulness of Anne Elliott. Usefulness is not the most glamorous attribute on the surface, but all around Anne Elliott, people are dining and visiting and entertaining one another, while Anne is sent here and there, wherever they can find a place to put her to work, be it watching her nephews or taking care of people in need.
Yet Anne doesn’t seem to be offended by this. She does have a good friend and champion in Lady Russell, who sees that Anne’s father and sisters only pay attention to her when they need her help with something, and she longs to make amends. She sees what a treasure Anne is.
When Anne visits an old friend, Mrs. Smith, who has been widowed and in poor health, she is struck by her cheerful attitude.
Anne’s astonishment increased. She could scarcely imagine a more cheerless situation in itself than Mrs. Smith’s. . . . Yet, in spite of all this, Anne had reason to believe that she had moments only of languor and depression, to hours of occupation and enjoyment. How could it be? She watched, observed, reflected, and finally determined that this was not a case of fortitude or resignation only.
A submissive spirit might be patient, a strong understanding would supply resolution, but here was something more; here was that elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of herself, which was from nature alone. It was the choicest gift of Heaven; and Anne viewed her friend as one of those instances in which, by a merciful appointment, it seems designed to counterbalance almost every other want.
Jumping from such virtuous characters as Anne Elliott and Mrs. Smith to Lady Susan was quite a leap, to say the least. Lady Susan is so unique from Austen’s other novels in that it is written entirely in letters – some from Lady Susan to her friend, Mrs. Johnson, and others from the Vernon family to the De Courcy family. It is a quick, delightful read, full of biting wit and sensational characters – some sensationally good, others not so much.
It is endlessly entertaining to read Lady Susan’s and Mrs. Johnson’s letter back and forth, as they are the characters you love to hate, definitely not the ones you want to become. But boy, are they funny! They are forever scheming of ways to benefit themselves and their fortunes. Lady Susan is a widow who is looking for a rich man to marry, while Mrs. Johnson is in her current marriage only for the money.
Lady Susan writes: You may well wonder how I contrive to pass my time here, and for the first week it was insufferably dull. Now, however, we begin to mend; our party is enlarged by Mrs. Vernon’s brother, a handsome young man, who promises me some amusement. There is something about him which rather interests me, a sort of sauciness and familiarity which I shall teach him to correct.
He is lively, and seems clever, and when I have inspired him with greater respect for me than his sister’s kind offices have implanted, he may be an agreeable flirt. There is exquisite pleasure in subduing an insolent spirit, in making a person predetermined to dislike, acknowledge one’s superiority.
Such has been a summary of the past seven weeks of my quarantined life as I have laughed, cheered, gasped, and fallen in love anew with all of Jane Austen’s memorable characters and delightful novels. Those of us who are readers know that reading is an escape from the stresses or monotony of life (depending upon what stage in which you currently find yourself). But it is so much more than that, even!
Dr. Seuss once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Those of us who cannot go very far these days can still take wonderful adventures through reading, all in the comfort of our favorite chair with a steaming cup of tea.
What book do you need to dive into today? If you’re too busy in this season of life, perhaps an audiobook would work better. Walt Disney once said, “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” How incredible that we have so many treasures readily available through digital and audio files. We can visit so many places and meet so many characters, all while staying at home.
I’ll leave us with a quote from Ezra Pound: “Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.”
Recent Comments