Showing results by narrator "Sara Nichols" in All Categories

A blistering criticism of the literary world in which she lived, Charlotte Brontë's "The Biographical Notes on the Pseudonymous Bells" contains two fascinating and insightful essays by the author of "Jane Eyre" addressing her late sisters, Emily and Anne's writing careers (Emily wrote "Wuthering Heights," Anne created "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall").

"Emma" is the fourth book by celebrated British author Jane Austen and the final book to be published during her lifetime. The story concerns Emma Woodhouse, a precocious young lady who fancies herself a matchmaker and thus intrudes upon the love lives of her friends and relations to find them suitable mates. When she attempts to cement the romance between her cousin Harriet (a girl of modest means) and a wealthy suitor, Emma is admonished by her brother-in-law, Mr. Knightley, for her meddling and a series of romantic entanglements soon ensues.

In the story, we meet young Fanny Price, an impoverished young girl who is sent to live with her wealthy family in Mansfield Park, her aunt and uncle's country estate. Fanny, seen as uncultured and boorish by her relatives, is mistreated by all of them...save cousin Edmund, for whom she kindles a secret crush. What follows is a series of love triangles (and quadrangles) among the various cousins and their prospective paramours, familial tragedies, scandals and ill-conceived affairs, all culminating in the question...will true love win in the end?

In the story, we meet Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters, who are betrayed by a family member and left in dire financial straits. Since none of the girls will come with a dowry, the prospects of their marrying well are extremely unlikely. One day, while out for a walk in the rain, the middle daughter, Marianne, twists her ankle and is rescued by the handsome Mr. Willoughby. Though cautioned by her older sister Elinor to be wary, Marianne - blinded by love - rushes into the budding romance headlong...with grim consequences.