Austen Said:

Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels

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she should like it,
not bear it;
“How uncomfortable it is,"
“not to have a single acquaintance here!”
“What shall we do? The gentlemen and ladies at this table look as if they wondered why we came here — we seem forcing ourselves into their party.”
“I wish we had any — it would be somebody to go to.”
“Had not we better go away as it is? Here are no tea-things for us, you see.”
“No, indeed, it looks very nice. But, dear Mrs. Allen, are you sure there is nobody you know in all this multitude of people? I think you must know somebody.”
“Very agreeable indeed,”
“You need not give yourself that trouble, sir.”
“About a week, sir,”
Why should you be surprised, sir?”
“Never, sir.”
“Yes, sir, I was there last Monday.”
“Yes, sir, I was at the play on Tuesday.”
“Yes, sir, on Wednesday.”
“Yes — I like it very well.”
“My journal!”
“Indeed I shall say no such thing.”
“If you please.”
“But, perhaps, I keep no journal.”
“I have sometimes thought,”
“whether ladies do write so much better letters than gentlemen! That is — I should not think the superiority was always on our side.”
“And what are they?”
“Upon my word! I need not have been afraid of disclaiming the compliment. You do not think too highly of us in that way.”
“How can you,”
“be so — "
“strange.”
he indulged himself a little too much with the foibles of others.
“I was not thinking of anything.”
“Well then, I will not.”
“How excessively like her brother Miss Morland is!”
“I should have known her anywhere for his sister!”
  • Novel: Northanger Abbey
  • Character: Speaking together Isabella Thorpe, Anne Thorpe and Maria Thorpe
  • Link to text in chapter 4
  • Text ID: 00183
her eldest brother had lately formed an intimacy with a young man of his own college, of the name of Thorpe;
he had spent the last week of the Christmas vacation with his family, near London.
of their wish of being better acquainted with her; of being considered as already friends, through the friendship of their brothers, etc.,
  • Novel: Northanger Abbey
  • Character: Narrator as Isabella Thorpe, Anne Thorpe and Maria Thorpe
  • Link to text in chapter 4
  • Text ID: 00193
He must be gone from Bath. Yet he had not mentioned that his stay would be so short!
he must be a charming young man, and was equally sure that he must have been delighted with her dear Catherine, and would therefore shortly return.
“for she must confess herself very partial to the profession”
“My dearest creature, what can have made you so late? I have been waiting for you at least this age!”
“Have you, indeed! I am very sorry for it; but really I thought I was in very good time. It is but just one. I hope you have not been here long?”
“Oh! These ten ages at least. I am sure I have been here this half hour. But now, let us go and sit down at the other end of the room, and enjoy ourselves. I have an hundred things to say to you. In the first place, I was so afraid it would rain this morning, just as I wanted to set off; it looked very showery, and that would have thrown me into agonies! Do you know, I saw the prettiest hat you can imagine, in a shop window in Milsom Street just now — very like yours, only with coquelicot ribbons instead of green; I quite longed for it. But, my dearest Catherine, what have you been doing with yourself all this morning? Have you gone on with Udolpho?”
“Yes, I have been reading it ever since I woke; and I am got to the black veil.”
“Are you, indeed? How delightful! Oh! I would not tell you what is behind the black veil for the world! Are not you wild to know?”
“Oh! Yes, quite; what can it be? But do not tell me — I would not be told upon any account. I know it must be a skeleton, I am sure it is Laurentina’s skeleton. Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it. I assure you, if it had not been to meet you, I would not have come away from it for all the world.”
“Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.”
“Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?”
“I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.”
“Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?”
“Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them. I wish you knew Miss Andrews, you would be delighted with her. She is netting herself the sweetest cloak you can conceive. I think her as beautiful as an angel, and I am so vexed with the men for not admiring her! I scold them all amazingly about it.”