Read-along Mansfield Park at Austen in August

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I'm participating in the Austen in August Mansfield Park Read Along. I'll be posting responses here or on Twitter.

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Meaning of a Jane Austen Quotation

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"Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way." Emma I was looking at this quotation yesterday, wondering what it means, and thought I'd put in up for people to share their thoughts about it. I rather think of it as a tongue twister but for the brain -- a brain twister. You have to slow down and think about it for your mind to be able to follow its twists and turns. So what do you think it means? Is Jane Austen supporting impudence, and saying that if you're impudent you can carry off anything, and she admires impudent people for it? Or is it the opposite? That silly things are still silly, even if it's sensible people do them? Or is she condemning the fact that sensible people can get away with silly things because of people's perceptions that they are sensible? Or is she laughing at us and talking about herself? Let me know what you think Jane Austen is saying here.
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"My idea of good company," says Anne in Jane Austen's Persuasion , "is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company." Add to it, a trip to Penrith, a few well-informed lectures, and one or two roll-on-the floor funny ones (thank you, Rachel and Liz), and your cup overflows. It certainly regenerated the spirit. (I'll admit that there were overflowing spirits, too). What other group of people would, very good naturedly, consent to dress up in rubbish bags? We did, indeed. And at the other end of the spectrum, listen spellbound to Hugo Summerson, a former MP, speak of flies, cabbages and kings (well, the aristocracy, at any rate)? We looked at feet, since our smiling chairperson Katie Fforde's shoes feature in a competition, and at hands and heads (required in Liz Bailey's workshop). We were persuaded of the importance of wagon wheels and stop-watches in across-the-ocean favourite J...
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