In keeping with the Mothers in May theme of our blog this month, I’d like to start up a discussion about Mothers and Mentors in Jane Austen. A good friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that she didn’t like Jane Austen because all the mothers in her novels are bad in one …
After sending the Musgroves to Lyme to visit with Louisa, Anne visits Lady Russell. How different Anne has become in the months since they last met. Lady Russell opened her inlaid walnut teapoy. The dusty herbal fragrance of tea leaves wafted up, riding on the dust motes in the afternoon sun. How long had it …
Will Lady Russell ever be able to have a conversation with Anne that is not painful and difficult? Lady Russell sipped her tea but Anne merely stared at hers. Something was on Anne’s mind—something more than the family’s impending change in circumstances, something very troubling. Perhaps she should mind her own business. That was an …
The Elliots are in trouble and Lady Russell wants to help. Why was she forever having these difficult discussions with Anne? A god mother should anticipate her duties, enjoy pleasant intimacies with her goddaughter. Recently those moments seemed fewer and farther between, over shadowed by difficult and challenging issues that should have been a mother’s …
Anne listened to Lady Russell’s counsel three years ago, turning down Captain Wentworth’s offer of marriage. Now a second man has proposed. What will Lady Russell’s advice to her be this time, and will Anne take it? (referenced in chapter 4 of Persuasion) “Charles Musgrove proposed?” asked Lady Russell eagerly, leaning forward now with heightened …
In the absence of Lady Elliot, Lady Russell takes it upon herself to advise Anne on her engagement. But first she must come to terms with her advice herself. Lady Russell dismissed her maid and sank down on the chair at her dressing table. Another curl, another tuck, none of it would make her feel …
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