The Squeee

I've often wondered why in Jane Austen the interesting new acquaintances of the heroine's age are often men rather than women. If the women are bad, they are petty, malicious, proud and inconstant. If the women are good, they are giggly, unintellectual, sometimes sensible, never really deep or profound. (We're not talking about the heroines themselves). Perhaps Jane Austen preferred the company of men? (We seem to see quotes from her letters favourable things about the gentlemen she met). Was she trying to tell us something by having the heroines be friendlier (in a platonic sense) to men than women? Look at Pride and Prejudice . Miss Bingley is a petty malicious slanderer who thinks she's greater than the less well-off Elizabeth. Charlotte Lucas is sensible but then marries the idiotic Mr Collins. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a vulgar, arrogant interfering old woman. The only exception is Mrs Gardiner, but she's Lizzie's aunt, so that doesn't count. The ge...

"You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a bit too brutally honest. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately." Take the Quiz here! Umm. I took piano lessons for a year when I was ten... that's not "beautifully", that's "yes, you do play only a little". Captivating singing voice? I do okay on Singstar, but I wouldn't call that "captivating" by any stretch of the imagination! I also have an intense dislike of poetry. I once bought the collected poems of DH Lawrence in a fit of "I like his writing and he's a LOCAL!" (five years in Nottingham and I've still never been to the DH Lawrence Heritage site in Eastwood, 20 mins from where we live now *cough*) only to remember, when I finally opened it to read, that I find 98% of all poetry insanely...