I believe it's because of writings like these, which make us laugh to ourselves because we find that we totally relate (guess woman haven't changed much since 1818):
"Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim. Catherine knew all this very well; her great aunt had read her a lecture on the subject only the Christmas before; and yet she lay awake ten miniutes on Wednesday night debating between her spotted and her tamboured muslin, and nothing but shortness of the time prevented her buying a new one for the evening."
Austen goes on to write, "It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man in affected by what is costly or new in her attire...Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her more, no woman will like her better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter..."
Excerpts from Jane Austen's Nothanger Abbey
With Love,
Abigail
4 comments:
I am a huge JA fan and I certainly agree with your post. Jane Austen seems to be timeless-just like Charles Dickens.
Yep, yep, yep! I definitely agree with that. I love Northhanger Abbey; my favorite part of that book is when she is imagining what the abbey is like...so funny. Okay talk to you later.
I'm reading Northanger Abbey now. I loved the BBC movie, so I had to read the book!
Blessings,
Joy
NA really had some hilariously amusing quotes. I posted this on my blog back in April last year when I was on an Austen binge:
She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance. A misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind, is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing any thing, should conceal it as well as she can....
Northanger Abbey Volume I
Jennifer Patterson--we met a little at TP NC 08
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