Monday, May 28, 2012

My Favorite Jane Austen Quotes

 I know my posts have been shockingly scarce lately (which would encompass the past five months, I suppose), and I've very little excuse besides lack of inspiration. Ever since I finished my Jane Austen novel series thing, I have been wanting momentum. I've been working on a hopefully-interesting post next in which my readers can be involved, but I knew I needed something new now, and I thought to do something I've never actually done--compile a list of my very favorite Jane Austen quotes to date. So, here they are.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” ~Mr. Tilney, Northanger Abbey

"Mama, the more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!" ~Marianne Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility

"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?" ~Mr. Bennet, Pride & Prejudice

{Those top three are probably my Very Most Favorites of All. And that sentence was not supposed to be grammatically correct.}

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment." ~Mr. Darcy, P&P

"Those who do not complain are never pitied." ~Mrs. Bennet, P&P

"Laugh as much as you chuse, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion." ~Jane Bennet, P&P

"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. --Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." ~Mr. Bennet, P&P

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!" ~Caroline Bingley, P&P

"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure." ~Elizabeth Bennet, P&P

"Obstinate, headstrong girl! I am ashamed of you!" ~Lady Catherine de Bourgh, P&P

“Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! … You shewed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.” ~Mr. Darcy

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." (If you do not automatically know what that's from, I pity you. Heehee.)


"There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart." ~Emma Woodhouse, Emma

"Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort." ~Mrs. Elton, Emma

"Without music, life would be a blank to me." ~Mrs. Elton, Emma

"My dearest Emma, for dearest you will always be whatever the event of this hour's conversation, my dearest, most beloved Emma..." ~Mr. Knightley, Emma
{Hmm. Maybe I should just do an entire post with most of Chapter 49. Heeheeheehee.}

"I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other." ~Emma Woodhouse

“But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.” ~NA

“If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.” ~NA

"...and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk, and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! It is a very nice word indeed! -- It does for everything. Originally perhaps it was applied only to express neatness, propriety, delicacy, or refinement; -- people were nice in their dress, in their sentiments, or their choice. But now every commendation on every subject is comprised in that one word." ~Henry Tilney, NA

"If there is anything disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it." ~Mary Musgrove, Persuasion

“One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.” ~Admiral Croft, Persuasion

“My sore-throats, you know, are always worse than anybody’s.” ~Mary Musgrove, Persuasion

“What wild imaginations one forms, where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken!” ~Anne Elliot, Persuasion

“But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.” ~Mansfield Park

"We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be." ~Fanny Price, MP


Quotes from Jane Austen's letters
"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."

“I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, & how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know.” (about Elizabeth Bennet)

"Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without affection."

“Here I am once more in this Scene of Dissipation & vice, and I begin already to find my Morals corrupted.” (letter written in London) 

"If I am a wild Beast I cannot help it. It is not my own fault."

"I am not at all in a humour for writing; I must write on till I am."

What are your favorite Jane Austen quotes?

Sunday, May 6, 2012

A fun tidbit about Jane Austen movie actors

Period drama fans such as myself always take delight in spotting actors in one movie as being such-and-such character in another. Here are a few fun connections I discovered a while back, where two actors who are in the  cast of one period drama both play the same character in two different Jane Austen adaptations. That probably won't make any sense; it's hard to explain, but not once I show you. Read on.

First, we have Mrs. Weston from Emma
She was played by Jodhi May in the 2009 mini-series and by Greta Scacchi in the 1996 Miramax version, and both those actresses were in...

Daniel Deronda (2002) as Mirah Lapidoth and Lydia Glasher. 


Then, there is Captain Wentworth from Persuasion
Ciaran Hinds played Captain Wentworth in the 1995 film, and Rupert Penry-Jones portrayed him in 2007. Well, they both acted in...

Jane Eyre (1997) as Mr. Rochester and St. John Rivers.


The other one I noticed was Edmund Bertram from Mansfield Park (though I have seen neither of the adaptations about to be mentioned).
Jonny Lee Miller was Edmund in the 1999 slaughtering version, and Blake Ritson played him in the 2007 misrepresentation movie.

Well, they were both in Emma (2009), playing [their correct Jane Austen characters] Mr. Knightley and Mr. Elton.


I'm sure there are other such coincidences, but these are just the ones I noticed for the actors in Jane Austen adaptations. Which are my specialty, as it were.

The latter one is especially interesting I think, as both the actors had portrayed Edmund Bertram before being cast in Emma. I wonder if they talked about it on set...

Have you ever noticed any of those, or any other fun actor-double coincidences? 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Keeping Calm and Giving In...

You probably haven't noticed, but I don't usually enter contests and such in the blogging world, which is because I can rarely think of anything worthwhile. Well, Miss Laurie is having a 'Keep Calm' poster period drama contest thingy and it amused me very much, because a day or two before she posted about the contest I had thought of something along those lines had randomly popped into my head, so I couldn't pass this up and not enter it. ;-) Though we are encouraged to stay away from Jane Austen, you know I cannot very well do that, and at the last moment I thought of a second one to do. Because since we can enter two, I might as well.

So. Here they are. To read more about the contest, click here.

1. Inspired by Little Dorrit (2008)

2. Inspired by Emma (probably 2009 just because it's the funniest)

Would you rather hear the story...

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