First she broke thesentence; now she has broken the
sequence. But perhaps it was the nature of Jane Austen notto want what she had not.
Think how much women have profited by the comments ofJuvenal; by the criticism of
Strindberg.
And this shape too has been made by men out of
their own needsfor their own uses. She will write in a rage whereshe should write
calmly. Success prompts toexertion; and habit facilitates success.
Thus a novel starts in us all sorts of antagonistic
and opposedemotions. To Jane Austen there was somethingdiscreditable in writing
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. It is another feather, perhapsthe finest, in their caps. The
smoothgliding of sentence after sentence was interrupted.
Let usadmit in the privacy of our own society that
these things sometimeshappen.
She will not beable to use half of them in a book
of this size. She was unhanding herself as they say in the old plays.
She will write in a rage whereshe should write
calmly. To Jane Austen there was somethingdiscreditable in writing PRIDE AND
PREJUDICE.
There is an attempt at it in DIANA OF THECROSSWAYS.
What were they blaming CharlotteBrontë for? Still it would beeasier to write prose
and fiction there than to write poetry or a play.
To Jane Austen there was somethingdiscreditable in
writing PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.
For it is the poetry that is still denied outlet.
Then since life it is in part, we judge it as life.