“Jane Austen's novel 'Persuasion' may not be as popular as 'Pride and Prejudice' but I think it is equally good. It's amazing that with limited education, little exposure to the outside world and hardly any encouragement, Jane Austen could write such wonderful books. She is often criticized for not including details of the revolutionary changes happening in the world around her. People forget that not every writer can be a chronicler.
I have read all her novels more than once. Here are some lines that I liked from 'Persuasion':
"Men
have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been
theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not
allow books to prove anything.”
“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”
“My idea of good company...is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.'
'You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company, that is the best.”
“How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.”
“If there is any thing disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it.”
“One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.”
“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."
“Anne hoped she had outlived the age of blushing; but the age of emotion she certainly had not.”
"If I was wrong in yielding to persuasion once, remember
that it was to persuasion exerted on the side of safety, not of risk. When I
yielded, I thought it was to duty; but no duty could be called in aid here. In
marrying a man indifferent to me, all risk would have been incurred, and all
duty violated."
“She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.”
"One does not love a place the less for
having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but
suffering."
"It was, perhaps, one of those cases in which advice is good or bad only as the event decides."
"It is a sort of pain, too, which is new to me. I have been used to the gratification of believing myself to earn every blessing that I enjoyed. I have valued myself on honourable toils and just rewards. Like other great men under reverses,' he added with a smile, 'I must endeavor to subdue my mind to my fortune. I must learn to brook being happier than I deserve."
“Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.”
Image: austenprose.com
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