jacob graham’s Reviews > Persuasion > Status Update
jacob graham
is on page 269 of 336
"'Perhaps, Anne rationalizes . . . 'this was one of those cases in which advice is good or bad only as the event decides.'
This is an extraordinary statement! How can a subsequent event be the determinant of whether a moral decision is right or wrong? . . . Is Anne Elliot merely assuming a providential universe in which whatever happens is right? . . ."
— 17 hours, 8 min ago
This is an extraordinary statement! How can a subsequent event be the determinant of whether a moral decision is right or wrong? . . . Is Anne Elliot merely assuming a providential universe in which whatever happens is right? . . ."
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jacob’s Previous Updates
jacob graham
is on page 265 of 336
"Was Anne right to give in to the 'persuasion' of Lady Russell? There is rich ambiguity or hesitation here, & phrases such as 'the fair interference of friendship' in their poised ambivalence indicate that Jane Austen knew all about the multiple motivations which are at work in the impulse to exert some apparently beneficent control over a person in a weaker position."
—extract from "Jane Austen," Tony Tanner (1986)
— Sep 04, 2026 07:04PM
—extract from "Jane Austen," Tony Tanner (1986)
jacob graham
is on page 211 of 336
4/4: ". . . To hope to make so much out of so little showed no common confidence in her own powers, and more than common daring. Of the thousands who take up a pen to write a story meant to amuse, how many are there who can, or who dare, be true, like Jane Austen?"
—appendix extract from Julia Kavanagh, "The Language of Feeling," from "English Women of Letters" (1862)
— Jul 18, 2026 07:11PM
—appendix extract from Julia Kavanagh, "The Language of Feeling," from "English Women of Letters" (1862)
jacob graham
is on page 211 of 336
". . . To hope to make so much out of so little showed no common confidence in her own powers, and more than common daring. Of the thousands who take up a pen to write a story meant to amuse, how many are there who can, or who dare, be true, like Jane Austen?"
—appendix extract from Julia Kavanagh, "The Language of Feeling," from "English Women of Letters" (1862)
— Jul 18, 2026 07:10PM
—appendix extract from Julia Kavanagh, "The Language of Feeling," from "English Women of Letters" (1862)
jacob graham
is on page 211 of 336
3/4: ". . . In her own range, and admitting her cold views of life to be true, she is faultless, or almost faultless . . . The value of light and shade, as a means of success, she discarded. Strong contrasts, bold flights, she shunned. To be true, to show life in its everyday aspect, was her ambition . . ."
— Jul 18, 2026 07:09PM
jacob graham
is on page 211 of 336
2/4: ". . . [T]his want of certain important faculties . . . causes the only defect, of Miss Austin's works: that everything is told in the same tone. An elopement, a death, seduction, are related as placidly as a dinner or ball . . . As she is, however, we must take her, and what her extraordinary powers wanted in extent, they made up in depth . . ."
— Jul 18, 2026 07:09PM
jacob graham
is on page 211 of 336
1/4: "But it was natural that powers so great should fail somewhere . . . [T]he delicate mind that could evolve, so shrewdly, foolishness from its deepest recesses, was powerless when strong feelings had to be summoned. They heard her, but they did not obey the call . . ."
— Jul 18, 2026 07:08PM
jacob graham
is on page 209 of 336
2/2: ". . . It seems so natural . . . so easy, that we are apt to forget the performance in the sense of its reality. The literary taste of the majority is always tinged with coarseness; it loves exaggeration, & slights the modesty of truth."
—appendix extract from Julia Kavanagh, "The Language of Feeling," from "English Women of Letters" (1862)
— Jul 18, 2026 06:29PM
—appendix extract from Julia Kavanagh, "The Language of Feeling," from "English Women of Letters" (1862)
jacob graham
is on page 209 of 336
1/2: "Wonderful, indeed, is the power that out of materials so slender, out of characters so imperfectly marked, could fashion a story. This is her great, her prevailing merit, & yet it cannot be denied, it is one that injures her with many readers . . ."
— Jul 18, 2026 06:29PM
jacob graham
is on page 201 of 336
3/3: ". . . Slender, & Shallow, & Aguecheek, as Shakespeare has painted them, though equally fools, resemble one another no more than Richard, & Macbeth, & Julius Caesar; and Miss Austen's Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Rushworth, & Miss Bates, are no more alike than her Darcy, Knightley, & Edmund Bertram."
—appendix extract of Richard Whateley, "A New Style of Novel," Quarterly Review, 1821
— Jul 17, 2026 03:35PM
—appendix extract of Richard Whateley, "A New Style of Novel," Quarterly Review, 1821
—extract from Robert Hopkins "Moral Luck and Judgment in Jane Austen's Persuasion" (1987)
Just Aunt Jane, 200 years ahead of modern philosophy. 💅🏼