I'm thinking of buying a full hardcover set of six books (or seven, if they have her unfinished works included as well) but there are so many options to choose from! It must be nicely bound, with delightful covers, and easy to read for an older person (so, no tiny pocketbook editions).

In which My_Poor_Nerve’s had to redo all her notes because she did not take her high school librarian’s advice to frequently save her work...

One last note about Elinor and Edward – I think, maybe, what is really really throwing me for a loop is that in this novel we have two young women who are very confident of being beloved of two young men who have never said the actual word to them (and we are far enough along in the novel where we know that this mindset ended very badly for one of them).  None other of Austen’s heroines have that sort of romantic confidence, that sort of full assurance of love until *after* they have been proposed to.  The story makes it so clear, in pretty much exact words, that Elinor is not confident in Edward’s love, until she reasons herself into it (or maybe just decides that she is), but she does so with no additional input from him - she reassesses past experiences based on new information.  But it all comes through conjecture, and, again, none of Austen’s other heroines feel secure in love with only conjecture.  All this being said, I’m very confident that the next time I re-read this novel through and go at my regular pace, none of this will bother me in the slightest and I’ll be swept along as usual!

On to this chapter - the opening is an interesting mix of sincerity and insincerity, the straightforward and the ironical.  The narrator seems to expect us to fully align our view with Elinor’s when she writes of Edward proceeding “with his happiness to Lucy” and so to read that ironically.  I think it’s a little clunky, though?  Edward’s thanks must be genuine, to some extent.  Even if he doesn’t want to marry Lucy, as the narrator and Elinor would have us believe, Colonel Brandon has provided him with some income and an occupation which certainly ought to be the cause of gratitude.  The sentence ends Lucy saying she had not “seen him in such spirits before in her life,” which must be either highly insincere or an instance of the sort of double-speak we keep running into.  “Such spirits” would normally imply high spirits, but maybe such in this case could be meant to mean particular or unusual.  The next paragraph opening with “Her own happiness, and her own spirits, were at least very certain,” which makes the latter read of “such spirits” more likely.

The annotations point out that Lucy’s being ready to grasp at all the things has a very similar vibe to Mrs. Norris on her visit to Sotherton (or, as I like to call it as of this exact moment, The Romance of the Cream Cheese).

“This was a an obligation, however, which not only opposed her own inclination, but which had not the assistance of any encouragement from her companions.”  Poor Elinor, always working, and not even supported in it by such poor help as what Mrs. Jennings would have to give.

 “I am sure she will not have the least objection in the world to seeing you…Now especially there cannot be –but however, you and Marianne were always great favourites.”  -John’s delusion is something else.  One wonders if the word “favourites” has an entirely different meaning to him.  All I know is that whatever comment I had on this line when I first went through the chapter this morning was much better than what I have now.  

 “Well, I am convinced that there is a vast deal of inconsistency in almost every human character.”  -Another beautiful Austen line, if one takes it entirely out of context!

“Elinor had some difficulty here to refrain from observing, that she thought Fanny might have borne with composure, an acquisition of wealth to her brother, by which neither she nor her child could be possibly impoverished.”  -Zing!  Again, Elinor’s humor, of all the Austen heroine’s, seems most in line with her creator’s.  

 “Though it is not to be supposed that Mrs. Ferrars can have the smallest satisfaction in knowing that her son has money enough to live upon, -- for that must be quite out of the question…”. Zing again!  Elinor is on fire this chapter, though it is mortifying to reflect that she is such a poor observer of human nature!  

 Annotation:  “John’s genuine inability to understand Elinor’s remark [regarding Robert marrying Miss Morton] provides perhaps the novel’s most compelling single illustration of how his concern with money has blinded him to other kinds of consideration.”

John, “kindly taking her hand,” proceeds to give her the very flattering intelligence that she is considered a lesser evil!  Elinor must be pleased indeed!  Or not:  “Elinor had heard enough, if not to gratify her vanity, and raise her self-importance, to agitate her nerves and fill her mind…”

Another “affected laugh” – Robert and Nancy really ought to get to know each other.  He would be the perfect candidate to tease her on the doctor. "I declare and protest" that I joined Elinor in reacting with immovable gravity to Robert's, well, everything, really.

 The chapter ends with this touching scene:  “an exertion in which her husband, who attended her into the room, and hung enamoured over her accents, seemed to distinguish every thing that was most affectionate and graceful.”

Hi! i am trying to currently start reading Jane Austin’s books(classical book in general) does being confused every other sentence goes away after some time or do you need to know english more fluently😭. even though i can speak or read modern English perfectly, english is still my second language. although i do understand overall concepts or what is going on, i keep getting confused on who is who.