Literature of the 19th century is one of my classes this semester, and while the novels are fun to read, the ideas my professor relates to us can get rather tedious. Last week, during one of his soliloquies, I was suddenly intrigued by the idea of what my life might look like if I were in one of Austen's novels. I've had to adjust some details for it. My family is just too modern for Austen.
But some pieces:
One of their mother’s beaus was a foppish, silly sort of man named Matthew Mark. He had never previously been married, yet Mrs. Pith’s eight children and widowed status did not frighten him. When he wooed Mrs. Pith, he was just developing a trading company. Soon after his rejected proposal, the company flourished and, unable to accept her refusal, he constantly offered Mrs. Pith and her children presents. It showed the family’s lack of propriety when they accepted the gifts, and it revealed their prudence when they carefully hid the source of the offerings. In fact, the children believed that it couldn’t be helped. The family was in need and he was offering assistance. The mother only learned the extent of the gifts the children graciously received on her behalf when she saw them flouncing around wearing the latest bonnets from
__________
One of the Pith boys had nearly enlisted in the military, but he did not have the money to pay a debt he owed. The second Pith boy, having found a sponsor, was headed to University; and the third, still too young for such decisions, simply did what young boys did best, and teased his sisters.
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