...may I present Miss Jane Austen! While perusing one of my favorite blogs I quite inadvertently stumbled over this lovely article about why the world needs Jane Austen. More specifically it concerns itself with the examples of true gentlemanlike, as well as ladylike, behavior that Austen illustrates in her characters. As any Janite knows not all of Austen's characters are mannerly and amiable slaves of the social dictates of Regency England. She infuses her stories with a colorful cast of rascals, rakes, snobs, bombasts, twits and last, but certainly not least, those who are truly good. With these characters Austen draws for her readers a very distinct picture of the roles that men and women should play, and the many ways in which one can miss the mark. She shows how to be a true gentleman or lady we must have a strong sense of the moral good, as well as a firm idea of duty, honor and modesty.
Why We Need Jane Austen
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Lovely find, m'dear. I especially liked the following:
ReplyDelete"No doubt some who read this will be tempted to scoff and to cast aspersions on such a quaintly old-fashioned scene. However, if reading Jane Austen inspires this kind of exchange, isn’t it a dramatic improvement over the obscene pick-up line in a beer soaked frat house where a misshapen adolescent propositions a young woman who has never learned how to blush?"