Love, a la Jane Austen

Posted on | February 15, 2010 | 4 Comments

It occurred to me, after the fact of course, that my Valentine’s Day post on Friday portrayed me as a romantic trying to be a pragmatist. While this is true to a certain extent, I didn’t want my few and faithful readers to think that reality had beaten down the romantic in me.

So, to retain my romance street cred, I offer you some of my favorite thoughts on love, from the grandmother of romance and chick-lit herself, Ms. Jane Austen:

“I consider everybody as having a right to marry once in their lives for love, if they can.”
- Jane Austen, to her sister in a letter

“I pay very little regard…to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.”
- Mrs. Grant, Mansfield Park

“All the privilege I claim for my own sex…is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone!”
– Anne Elliot, Persuasion

“Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.”
– Captain Wentworth, Persuasion

“I cannot fix on the hour, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”
– Mr. Darcy (on when he realized he was in love with Lizzie), Pride & Prejudice

“I suppose there may be a hundred different ways of being in love.”
– Emma Woodhouse, Emma

and my personal favorite:

“My dearest Emma, for dearest you will always be, whatever the event of this hour’s conversation, my dearest, most beloved Emma… I cannot make speeches… If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
- Mr. Knightley, Emma

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