Austen Said:

Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels

Search

Your search returned 90 results


“I do not cough for my own amusement,”
“Pride,”
“is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
her admiration of Captain Carter,
her hope of seeing him in the course of the day, as he was going the next morning to London.
“I admire the activity of your benevolence,”
“but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.”
having promised on his first coming into the country to give a ball at Netherfield.
it would be the most shameful thing in the world if he did not keep it.
“In point of composition,”
“the letter does not seem defective. The idea of the olive-branch perhaps is not wholly new, yet I think it is well expressed.”
she had no disinclination for it.
“While I can have my mornings to myself,” said she, “it is enough — I think it is no sacrifice to join occasionally in evening engagements. Society has claims on us all; and I profess myself one of those who consider intervals of recreation and amusement as desirable for everybody.”
though by no means so clever as herself,
if encouraged to read and improve himself by such an example as hers, he might become a very agreeable companion.
“Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures! They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me— I should infinitely prefer a book.”
“And my aunt Phillips is sure it would do me a great deal of good,”
“I cannot see why Mrs. Forster should not ask me as well as Lydia,”
“Though I am not her particular friend. I have just as much right to be asked as she has, and more too, for I am two years older.”
a visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly happiness.
the streets of that gay bathing-place covered with officers.
herself the object of attention, to tens and to scores of them at present unknown.
all the glories of the camp — its tents stretched forth in beauteous uniformity of lines, crowded with the young and the gay, and dazzling with scarlet; and, to complete the view,
herself seated beneath a tent, tenderly flirting with at least six officers at once.
they were just returned from the library, where such and such officers had attended them, and where she had seen such beautiful ornaments as made her quite wild; that she had a new gown, or a new parasol, which she would have described more fully, but was obliged to leave off in a violent hurry, as Mrs. Forster called her, and they were going off to the camp;
“This is a most unfortunate affair, and will probably be much talked of. But we must stem the tide of malice, and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other the balm of sisterly consolation.”
“Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson: that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”
“I am not going to run away, papa,”
“If I should ever go to Brighton, I would behave better than Lydia.”
her dear Wickham
no one was to be put in competition with him. He did every thing best in the world;
he would kill more birds on the first of September, than any body else in the country.
“There is a gentleman with him, mamma,”
“who can it be?”
“La!”
“it looks just like that man that used to be with him before. Mr. what's-his-name. That tall, proud man .”
“What is the matter mamma? What do you keep winking at me for? What am I to do?”
“Mr. Darcy, I am a very selfish creature; and, for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings, care not how much I may be wounding yours. I can no longer help thanking you for your unexampled kindness to my poor sister. Ever since I have known it, I have been most anxious to acknowledge to you how gratefully I feel it. Were it known to the rest of my family, I should not have merely my own gratitude to express.”
“You must not blame my aunt. Lydia's thoughtlessness first betrayed to me that you had been concerned in the matter; and, of course, I could not rest till I knew the particulars. Let me thank you again and again, in the name of all my family, for that generous compassion which induced you to take so much trouble, and bear so many mortifications, for the sake of discovering them.”
she had rather stay at home.
"I have no scruple of observing to you, how nonsensical some persons are about their place, because all the world knows how easy and indifferent you are about it; but I wish anybody could give Mary a hint that it would be a great deal better if she were not so very tenacious, especially if she would not be always putting herself forward to take place of mamma. Nobody doubts her right to have precedence of mamma, but it would be more becoming in her not to be always insisting on it. It is not that mamma cares about it the least in the world, but I know it is taken notice of by many persons."
"And I will tell you our reason,"
"and all about it. I am come on to give you notice, that papa and mamma are out of spirits this evening, especially mamma; she is thinking so much of poor Richard! And we agreed it would be best to have the harp, for it seems to amuse her more than the piano-forte. I will tell you why she is out of spirits. When the Crofts called this morning, (they called here afterwards, did not they?),
they happened to say, that
and most unluckily it came into mamma's head, when they were gone, that Wentworth, or something very like it, was the name of poor Richard's captain at one time; I do not know when or where, but a great while before he died, poor fellow! And upon looking over his letters and things, she found it was so, and is perfectly sure that this must be the very man, and her head is quite full of it, and of poor Richard! So we must be as merry as we can, that she may not be dwelling upon such gloomy things."
"Your first was the Asp, I remember; we will look for the Asp."
"But, Captain Wentworth,"
"how vexed you must have been when you came to the Asp, to see what an old thing they had given you."
"Ah! You make the most of it, I know,"
"but if it were really so, I should do just the same in her place. If I loved a man, as she loves the Admiral, I would always be with him, nothing should ever separate us, and I would rather be overturned by him, than driven safely by anybody else."