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Attributed to Adèle Romany (1769–1846), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Source
Portrait of a Young Lady, by Adèle Romany.
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‘Portrait of a young lady’, attributed to French artist Adèle Romany (1769-1846). Anne Thackeray felt that some of the novelists of her own generation, such as George Eliot, poured so much tumultuous emotion into their heroines that they became less real. “What we have lost in calm, in happiness, in tranquillity, we have gained in intensity. Our danger is now, not of expressing and feeling too little, but of expressing more than we feel. [...] People are gifted with wider experiences, with aspirations and emotions that were never more sincerely spoken than they are now; but, for actual study of character, there seems but little taste. A phase, a mood of mind, a sympathy is what we look for, and what we chiefly find among the present novelists.” Arguably, since the 1950s television and cinema has made the same bargain.
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Portrait of a Young Lady, by Adèle Romany.
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Attributed to Adèle Romany (1769–1846), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
‘Portrait of a young lady’, attributed to French artist Adèle Romany (1769-1846). Anne Thackeray felt that some of the novelists of her own generation, such as George Eliot, poured so much tumultuous emotion into their heroines that they became less real. “What we have lost in calm, in happiness, in tranquillity, we have gained in intensity. Our danger is now, not of expressing and feeling too little, but of expressing more than we feel. [...] People are gifted with wider experiences, with aspirations and emotions that were never more sincerely spoken than they are now; but, for actual study of character, there seems but little taste. A phase, a mood of mind, a sympathy is what we look for, and what we chiefly find among the present novelists.” Arguably, since the 1950s television and cinema has made the same bargain.
“‘I believe you equal to every important exertion and to every domestic forbearance so long as — if I may be allowed the expression — so long as you have an object; I mean while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not court it)* is that of loving longest when existence or when hope is gone.’ She could not immediately have uttered another sentence - her heart was too full, her breath too much oppressed.”
Dear Anne Elliot! — sweet, impulsive, womanly, tender-hearted — one can almost hear her voice, pleading the cause of all true women. Jane Austen had reached the very end of her life when she wrote thus. Her words seem to ring in our ears after they have been spoken. Anne Elliot must have been Jane Austen herself, speaking for the last time. There is something so true, so gentle about her, that it is impossible not to love her. She is the bright-eyed heroine of the earlier novels, matured, chastened, cultivated, to whom fidelity has brought only greater depth and sweetness instead of bitterness and pain.
ByAnne Thackeray1837-1919
Abridged.
* ‘Court’ is an unusual reading: the word in the first edition and in modern editions is ‘covet’.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author
aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that
strike you. How do they help the author communicate her
ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you?
How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939)
by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at
Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn,
Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University,
USA.
Précis
Quoting Anne Elliot’s debate with Captain Harville, Thackeray recalled her argument: that a woman, unlike a man, remains faithful in love even when love is unrequited. The sincerity and gentleness with which Anne spoke touched Thackeray, and led her to believe that she was speaking for Austen herself, in this her last novel.(53 / 60 words)
Quoting Anne Elliot’s debate with Captain Harville, Thackeray recalled her argument: that a woman, unlike a man, remains faithful in love even when love is unrequited. The sincerity and gentleness with which Anne spoke touched Thackeray, and led her to believe that she was speaking for Austen herself, in this her last novel.
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Variations:
1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words.2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words.3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, besides, if, not, otherwise, ought, unless, whether.
Suggest answers to this question. See
if you can limit one answer to exactly
seven words.
What did Thackeray find so appealing about Anne Elliot?
Suggestion
The gentleness that suffering had given her.
(7 words)
Variations:
1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words.2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words.3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
JigsawsBased on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single
sentence, using different words as much as possible.
Do not be satisfied with the first answer you
think of; think of several, and choose the best.
The heroine of ‘Persuasion’ is Anne Elliot. There is a lot of Austen in Anne Elliot. It was her last novel.
Variation:
Try rewriting your sentence so that it uses one or more of
these words:
1.Character 2.Draw 3.Plot
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1Heart.So.Woman.
2Believe.Mature.Thus.
3All.Book.Contempt.
Variations:1.include direct and indirect speech2.include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who3.use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
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