Austen

• Persuasion (1817)

  “having sealed his letter with great rapidity,"

  "a hurried, agitated air, which shewed impatience to be gone"

  "He had passed out of the room without a look!”

  ‘I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach,’ 

  ‘I can listen no longer.’
• Persuasion 2

  ‘a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.’

  Such a letter was not soon to be recovered from

  Tranquillity

  Every moment rather brought fresh agitation.

  Overpowering happiness

  Would you have answered my letter? Would you, in short, have renewed the engagement then?”
• Pride and Prejudice (1813)

  One word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.

  ‘any repetition of those sentiments, or renewal of those offers, which were last night so disgusting to you.’

  ‘I write without any intention of paining you, or humbling myself, by dwelling on wishes, which, for the happiness of both, cannot be too soon forgotten;’

  ‘character’ ‘required it [the letter] to be written and read,’

  ‘must therefore pardon the freedom with which I demand your attention… I demand of it your justice.
• P&P 2

  His style was not penitent but haughty. It was all pride and insolence.

  ‘never look at it again’ ‘half a minute’.

  ‘in a fair way of soon knowing [it] by heart’.

  ‘She studied every sentence; and her feelings towards its writer were at times widely different.’

  ‘How different did every thing now appear in which he was concerned!’
• P&P 3

  Presence of Darcy causes ‘weakness’ ‘very agitating reflections’

  ‘did it soon make you think better of me? Did you, on reading it, give any credit to its contents?’ ‘bitterness’

  ‘how gradually all her former prejudices had been removed’. 

  ‘the feelings of the person who wrote and the person who received it are not so widely different from what they were then.’
• Evelina (1778)

  Falsified letters, manipulation of intimacy. 

  ‘I put the letter into his hands, and left it to speak both for me and itself.’

  ‘I burn to tell you, in person, how much I am, my sweet girl, your grateful admirer’

  ‘this note, - but let it speak for itself’

  ‘But this dream was soon over, and I awoke to far different feelings.’

  ‘I retired to my own room to read it’
• Northanger Abbey (1817, written 1803)

  ‘man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal’.
• Francesca Marinaro


  Darcy letter acceptance of shortcomings and development of his character to more of a gentleman
• Joe Bray


  The heroine must learn especially how to read, or interpret, the opposite sex
• Gary Kelly


  Depicts her heroines' 'reading the world' and the 'consequences of misreading'
• Wolfgang Iser


  Reader response theory, 'opens himself to the unfamiliar world with-out being imprisoned in it'