What would Jane do?
I read to the end of this interesting piece before realizing that the writer taking moral instruction from Jane Austen was a man. Describing what attracts him to Jane in the Wall Street Journal, James Collins may find himself attracting marriage proposals from women similarly drawn to -
self- knowledge, generosity, humility; elegance, propriety, cheerful orderliness; good understanding, correct opinion, knowledge of the world, a warm heart, steady, observant, moderate, candid, sensibility to what is amiable and lovely.
But I think James may have omitted two qualities essential to Jane, the inmost being of the men she admires in her novel Persuasion - courage and self-sacrifice in a cause greater than themselves.
| Permalink
| 
Comments (2)
I liked that list of adjectives, too...I imagined it as a pre-flight checklist before a Sticky Situation.
Holly | November 16, 2009 11:03 AM
Posted on November 16, 2009 11:03
Pre-flight checklist before a Sticky Situation. Indeed.
And to that checklist I'd add two that struck me very forcefully in a recent rereading of Mansfield Park - honesty and duty.
Cat | November 16, 2009 06:01 PM
Posted on November 16, 2009 18:01