4 ms·

"Gentry", surely, rather than "nobility". I remember no titles other than the obnoxious Lady Catherine de Burgh(?) in P&P; but then I'm not really a Janeite. I

by cafard 9y ago

"Gentry", surely, rather than "nobility". I remember no titles other than the obnoxious Lady Catherine de Burgh(?) in P&P; but then I'm not really a Janeite. I don't think that you have to be a fanboy to enjoy Austen's novels. Some readers do seem to read her novels an awful lot, it's true. (And I do not and will not believe that she would have tolerated the expression "personal flourishing" in her prose.)

AnimalMuppet 9y ago
> And I do not and will not believe that she would have tolerated the expression "personal flourishing" in her prose. No, I think she would have used it. It would be something the heroine would be chasing at the beginning of the book, and came to see as foolish as the book went on. (Or perhaps learned that it wasn't found by chasing it.)