|
Showing 1 - 25 of
232 matches in All Departments
Is there any sensation equal to that produced by the first lover
and the first proposal coming to a girl in a large family of girls?
It is delightfully sentimental, comical, complimentary,
affron-ting, rousing, tiresome-all in one. It is a herald of
lovers, proposals, and wonderful changes all round. It is the first
thrill of real life in its strong passions, grave vicissitudes, and
big joys and sorrows as they come in contact with idle fancies,
hearts that have been light, simple experiences which have hitherto
been carefully guarded from rude shocks. It does not signify much
whether the family of girls happen to be rich or poor, unless
indeed that early and sharp poverty causes a precocity which
deepens girls' characters betimes, and by making them sooner women,
robs them of a certain amount of the thoughtlessness, fearlessness,
and impractica-bility of girlhood. But girlhood, like many another
natural condition, dies hard; and its sweet, bright illusions, its
wisdom and its folly, survive tolerably severe pinches of
adversity.
In one volume Sarah Tytler presents the most characteristic of Jane
Austen's novels, together with her life. The tales and the life are
calculated to reflect on each other, and the arrangement of the
tales - selected by the author as Austen wrote them, not as they
happened to be published - allows the growth of Austen's mind and
taste to be recognised. The author touches on these great English
novels in such a way as to make them readily accessible to all. She
points out the great changes in social standards, customs and
fashions that have occurred since Jane Austen wrote, but concludes
that the human nature in her books remains the same as human nature
in every generation.
|
|