Friday 4 June 2010

Jane Austen Quote of the Week - Week 111

I have chosen a quote from one of the letters Jane wrote to Cassandra. This one was written on Thursday April 18th 1811.
I think it is one of the great examples of the robust, loving and nurturing relationship that they shared. I also like the audacious attitude of Jane at the beginning of the quote.

"I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant, and spending all my money, and, what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too; for in a linendraper's shop to which I went for checked muslin, and for which I was obliged to give seven shillings a yard, I was tempted by a pretty-coloured muslin, and bought ten yards of it on the chance of your liking it; but, at the same time, if it should not suit you, you must not think yourself at all obliged to take it; it is only 3s. 6d. per yard, and I should not in the least mind keeping the whole."



Pic: Cassandra and Jane in Becoming Jane

9 comments:

Icha said...

Wow... you make me feel guilty for getting a new dress the other day...

Anyway, I'm selling some dresses and two shoes tomorrow at Ebay, so hope they make it up somehow...

And yes... Jane and Cass were really sweet sisters...

Katherine said...

I really liked this! Thanks for sharing...

Rachel said...

Thank you Katherine.

Anonymous said...

you know what? Pretty soon that letter is going to be 200 years old and the fact that it still resenates amazes me. 200 years....wonder what Jane would think of that? Or what she would think of her writing being loved the world over?
Lis

Icha said...

I think you're right, Lis. Amazing, is it not?

Icha said...

To Roberta77:

Sorry, I was supposed to 'publish' your comment, and I have done that more than 3 times, but it never came up. So here's a comment from Roberta77:


Dear all,

Is there anyone who could give me a help? I'm desperately looking for a piece of information: do you know where Jane's piece of writing dedicated to Cassandra ("The boundaries of propriety
were vigorously assaulted, as was only right, but not quite breached,
as was also right" etc) comes from?

I'm doing a research on the adaptation but I can't find the quotation anywhere in Austen's works. Do you think they made it up? Anyone has any suggestion?

Many thanks

Roberta77

Icha said...

Roberta, in answering to your Q, the quote is nowhere to be found on JA's work, because it was solely written for the Becoming Jane movie script.

http://www.veryabc.cn/movie/uploads/script/BecomingJane.txt

Hope that helps.

roberta77 said...

Yes, that's what I thought but I needed confermation. Thanks very much!

Icha said...

No worries. And do keep visiting us. I'm not sure why I couldn't publish your comment earlier, but I hope that incident won't happen again.