Austen Said:

Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels

Search

Your search returned 402 results


as a most important and valuable assistant to the latter in all the business before her.
such a measure should have been resorted to at all,
and the affront it contained to Anne, in Mrs Clay's being of so much use, while Anne could be of none,
results the most serious to his family from the intimacy were more than possible.
her father had at present an idea of the kind. Mrs Clay had freckles, and a projecting tooth, and a clumsy wrist, which he was continually making severe remarks upon, in her absence; but she was young, and certainly altogether well-looking, and possessed, in an acute mind and assiduous pleasing manners, infinitely more dangerous attractions than any merely personal might have been.
but Elizabeth, who in the event of such a reverse would be so much more to be pitied than herself, should never,
have reason to reproach her for giving no warning.
how such an absurd suspicion should occur to her,
this break-up of the family exceedingly. Their respectability was as dear to her as her own, and a daily intercourse had become precious by habit. It was painful to look upon their deserted grounds, and still worse to anticipate the new hands they were to fall into; and to escape the solitariness and the melancholy of so altered a village, and be out of the way when Admiral and Mrs Croft first arrived,
make her own absence from home begin when she must give up Anne.
she might be able to leave it by dinner-time.
though there were on each side continual subjects of offence, neither family could now do without it.
other Elliots could have her advantage in seeing how unknown, or unconsidered there, were the affairs which at Kellynch Hall were treated as of such general publicity and pervading interest;
she must now submit to feel that another lesson, in the art of knowing our own nothingness beyond our own circle, was become necessary for her;
to avoid such self-delusion in future,
of the extraordinary blessing of having one such truly sympathising friend as Lady Russell.
it to be very fitting, that every little social commonwealth should dictate its own matters of discourse;
ere long, to become a not unworthy member of the one she was now transplanted into.
no dread of these two months. Mary was not so repulsive and unsisterly as Elizabeth, nor so inaccessible to all influence of hers; neither was there anything among the other component parts of the cottage inimical to comfort. She was always on friendly terms with her brother-in-law; and in the children, who loved her nearly as well, and respected her a great deal more than their mother,
interest, amusement, and wholesome exertion.
a more equal match might have greatly improved him;
a woman of real understanding might have given more consequence to his character, and more usefulness, rationality, and elegance to his habits and pursuits.
As it was, he did nothing with much zeal, but sport; and his time was otherwise trifled away, without benefit from books or anything else. He had very good spirits, which never seemed much affected by his wife's occasional lowness, bore with her unreasonableness sometimes to Anne's admiration, and upon the whole, though there was very often a little disagreement (in which she had sometimes more share than she wished, being appealed to by both parties), they might pass for a happy couple. They were always perfectly agreed in the want of more money, and a strong inclination for a handsome present from his father; but here, as on most topics, he had the superiority, for while Mary thought
it a great shame that such a present was not made,
he always contended
they are always tempting her to take a walk with them."
Mrs Musgrove was very apt not to give her the precedence that was her due, when they dined at the Great House with other families;
did not see any reason why she was to be considered so much at home as to lose her place.
they should not have done so well without the sight of Mr and Mrs Musgrove's respectable forms in the usual places, or without the talking, laughing, and singing of their daughters.
when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself;
A beloved home made over to others; all the precious rooms and furniture, groves, and prospects, beginning to own other eyes and other limbs!
for feelings of great consideration towards herself, in all that related to Kellynch,
she had said nothing which might not do for either brother.
reasonable it was, that Mrs Croft should be thinking and speaking of Edward, and not of Frederick;
the same brother must still be in question.
That she was coming to apologize, and that they should have to spend the evening by themselves,
she only came on foot, to leave more room for the harp, which was bringing in the carriage.
her poor son gone for ever,
Since he actually was expected in the country, she must teach herself to be insensible on such points.
only a week,
and then,
they must meet;
she could feel secure even for a week.
she was all but calling there in the same half hour.
She and Mary were actually setting forward for the Great House, where,
they must inevitably have found him, when they were stopped by the eldest boy's being at that moment brought home in consequence of a bad fall.
how perfectly delighted they were with him, how much handsomer, how infinitely more agreeable they thought him than any individual among their male acquaintance,
How glad they had been to hear papa invite him to stay dinner, how sorry when he said it was quite out of his power, and how glad again when he had promised in reply to papa and mamma's farther pressing invitations to come and dine with them on the morrow -- actually on the morrow; and he had promised it in so pleasant a manner, as if he felt all the motive of their attention just as he ought. And in short, he had looked and said everything with such exquisite grace, that they could assure them all, their heads were both turned by him;
They were gone,
to be happy, however oddly constructed such happiness might seem; as for herself, she was left with as many sensations of comfort, as were, perhaps, ever likely to be hers.