Austen Said:

Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels

Search

Your search returned 174 results


Fanny was worth it all;
worth every effort of patience, every exertion of mind, but he did not think he could have gone on himself with any woman breathing, without something more to warm his courage than his eyes could discern in hers.
If Lady Bertram, with all her incompetency and languor, could feel this, the inference of what her niece, alive and enlightened as she was, must feel, was elevating.
such a ready comprehension of a hint,
was rather favourable than not.
the too common neglect of the qualification, the total inattention to it, in the ordinary school-system for boys, the consequently natural, yet in some instances almost unnatural, degree of ignorance and uncouthness of men, of sensible and well-informed men, when suddenly called to the necessity of reading aloud, which had fallen within their notice, giving instances of blunders, and failures with their secondary causes, the want of management of the voice, of proper modulation and emphasis, of foresight and judgment, all proceeding from the first cause: want of early attention and habit;
his opinion and give his own as to the properest manner in which particular passages in the service should be delivered,
This would be the way to Fanny's heart. She was not to be won by all that gallantry and wit and good-nature together could do; or, at least, she would not be won by them nearly so soon, without the assistance of sentiment and feeling, and seriousness on serious subjects.
to know her meaning;
it was to be a very thorough attack,
looks and undertones were to be well tried,
dear little Fanny might be persuaded into explaining away that shake of the head to the satisfaction of her ardent lover;
he inclined to hope that so much could not have been said and listened to without some profit to the speaker.
it belonged entirely to Fanny to chuse whether her situation with regard to Crawford should be mentioned between them or not; and
if she did not lead the way, it should never be touched on by him;
She had been used to consult him in every difficulty, and he loved her too well to bear to be denied her confidence now; he hoped to be of service to her, he thought he must be of service to her; whom else had she to open her heart to? If she did not need counsel, she must need the comfort of communication. Fanny estranged from him, silent and reserved, was an unnatural state of things; a state which he must break through,
to forbear all farther discussion; and not even to mention the name of Crawford again, except as it might be connected with what must be agreeable to her.
It had been, as he before presumed, too hasty a measure on Crawford's side, and time must be given to make the idea first familiar, and then agreeable to her. She must be used to the consideration of his being in love with her, and then a return of affection might not be very distant.
there being nothing more said to her: no farther attempts to influence or persuade; but that everything should be left to Crawford's assiduities, and the natural workings of her own mind.
thought his father a little unreasonable in supposing the first three or four days could produce any.
Crawford's sister, the friend and companion who had been so much to her, should not be more visibly regretted.
Fanny spoke so seldom of her, and had so little voluntarily to say of her concern at this separation.
before Fanny had any chance of seeing it, all its own freshness and all the freshness of its wearer's feelings must be worn away. It would be sunk into a badge of disgrace; for what can be more unbecoming, or more worthless, than the uniform of a lieutenant, who has been a lieutenant a year or two, and sees others made commanders before him?
The thing was good in itself, and could not be done at a better time; and he had no doubt of it being highly agreeable to Fanny.
It would be the greatest pleasure
to have her there to the last moment before he sailed, and perhaps find her there still when he came in from his first cruise. And besides, he wanted her so very much to see the Thrush before she went out of harbour— the Thrush was certainly the finest sloop in the service—and there were several improvements in the dockyard, too, which he quite longed to shew her.
her being at home for a while would be a great advantage to everybody.
he could not leave his father and mother just when everybody else of most importance to their comfort was leaving them;
its fixing his happiness for ever.
She knew so much already, that she must know everything.
enough to make the little cottage comfortable, in which he and Fanny were to pass all their middle and later life together.
his sister's feelings should be so cold towards a man whom he must consider as the first of human characters;
everything was always for the best;
to go and change his dress, and make the necessary preparations for his removal on board directly, that he might have his tea in comfort afterwards.
being on shore some part of every day before they sailed, and even of getting her to Spithead to see the sloop.
'Well, Mary, when do you write to Fanny? Is not it time for you to write to Fanny?'
He had reached it late the night before, was come for a day or two, was staying at the Crown, had accidentally met with a navy officer or two of his acquaintance since his arrival,
he had spent half an hour with his sister the evening before his leaving London;
she had sent her best and kindest love, but had had no time for writing;
he thought himself lucky in seeing Mary for even half an hour, having spent scarcely twenty-four hours in London, after his return from Norfolk, before he set off again;
her cousin Edmund was in town, had been in town, he understood, a few days;
he had not seen him himself, but
he was well, had left them all well at Mansfield, and was to dine, as yesterday, with the Frasers.
if the Miss Prices were not afraid of the fatigue;
It had been real business, relative to the renewal of a lease in which the welfare of a large and— he believed —industrious family was at stake. He had suspected his agent of some underhand dealing; of meaning to bias him against the deserving; and he had determined to go himself, and thoroughly investigate the merits of the case. He had gone, had done even more good than he had foreseen, had been useful to more than his first plan had comprehended, and was now able to congratulate himself upon it, and to feel that in performing a duty, he had secured agreeable recollections for his own mind. He had introduced himself to some tenants whom he had never seen before; he had begun making acquaintance with cottages whose very existence, though on his own estate, had been hitherto unknown to him.
his hoping soon to have an assistant, a friend, a guide in every plan of utility or charity for Everingham: a somebody that would make Everingham and all about it a dearer object than it had ever been yet.
He had a great attachment to Mansfield himself;
he looked forward with the hope of spending much, very much, of his time there; always there, or in the neighbourhood. He particularly built upon a very happy summer and autumn there this year; he felt that it would be so: he depended upon it; a summer and autumn infinitely superior to the last. As animated, as diversified, as social, but with circumstances of superiority undescribable.
his only business in Portsmouth was to see her; that he was come down for a couple of days on her account, and hers only, and because he could not endure a longer total separation.
himself prevented by a prior engagement. He was engaged to dinner already both for that day and the next; he had met with some acquaintance at the Crown who would not be denied; he should have the honour, however, of waiting on them again on the morrow, etc.,