Becoming Jane Quotes

Jane Austen: If I marry, I want it to be out of affection. Like my mother.

Mrs. Austen: And I have to dig my own damn potatoes!

Tom Lefroy: How can you, of all people, dispose of yourself without affection?

Jane Austen: How can I dispose of myself with it?

Mrs. Austen: JANE!

Lady Gresham: What is she doing?

Mr. Wisley: Writing.

Lady Gresham: Can anything be done about it?

Cassandra Austen: [regarding 'First Impressions', which will later become 'Pride and Prejudice'] How does the story begin?

Jane Austen: Badly.

Cassandra Austen: And then?

Jane Austen: It gets worse.

Mrs. Austen: That girl needs a husband. But who's good enough? Nobody. Thanks to you.

Rev Austen: Being so much the model of perfection.

Mrs. Austen: I've shared your bed for 32 years and perfection I have not encountered.

Rev Austen: Yet.

Jane Austen: [regarding Mr. Wisley] His small fortune will not buy me.

Eliza De Feuillide: What will buy you, cousin?

Tom Lefroy: I think that you, Miss Austen, consider yourself a cut above the company.

Jane Austen: Me?

Tom Lefroy: You, ma'am. Secretly.

Tom Lefroy: Was I deficient in propriety?

Jane Austen: Why did you do that?

Tom Lefroy: Couldn't waste all those expensive boxing lessons.

Tom Lefroy: You dance with passion.

Jane Austen: No sensible woman would demonstrate passion, if the purpose were to attract a husband.

Tom Lefroy: As opposed to a lover?

Jane Austen: [she has just kissed him] Did I do that well?

Tom Lefroy: Very. Very well.

Jane Austen: I wanted, just once, to do it well.

Tom Lefroy: I am yours. Heart and soul, I am yours. Much good that is.

Jane Austen: I will decide that.

Mrs. Radcliffe: Of what do you wish to write?

Jane Austen: Of the heart.

Mrs. Radcliffe: Do you know it?

Jane Austen: Not all of it.

Jane Austen: Could I really have this?

Tom Lefroy: What, precisely?

Jane Austen: You.

Tom Lefroy: Me, how?

Jane Austen: This life with you.

Tom Lefroy: Yes.

Tom Lefroy: I depend entirely upon...

Jane Austen: Upon your uncle. And I depend on you. What will you do?

Tom Lefroy: What I must.

John Warren: And the famous Mrs. Radcliffe, is she as Gothic as her novels?

Jane Austen: Not in externals. But her internal landscape is, I suspect, quite picturesque.

Mr. Wisley: True of us all.

Tom Lefroy: Miss Austen...

Jane Austen: Yes?

Tom Lefroy: Goodnight.

Lucy Lefroy: [Interrupting Tom and Jane] What kind of trouble?

Jane Austen: All sorts of trouble.

Wine Whore: [comes to sit on Tom's lap] Glass of wine?

Tom Lefroy: Yes, thank you.

[lifts the glass]

Tom Lefroy: A toast from one member of the profession to another.

Tom Lefroy: [reading from Mr. White's Natural History] Swifts, on a fine morning in May, flying this way, that way, sailing around at a great hight, perfectly happily. Then -

[checks he has her attention and nods to let her know this is what he meant]

Tom Lefroy: Then, one leaps onto the back of another, grasps tightly and forgetting to fly they both sink down and down, in a great dying fall, fathom after fathom, until the female utters...

Jane Austen: [breaking out of trance] Yes?

Tom Lefroy: [looks at her for a moment, then continues reading] The female utters a loud, piercing cry...

[he looks up at her again]

Tom Lefroy: ... of ecstasy.

[smiles tantalisingly]

Tom Lefroy: Is this conduct commonplace in the natural history of Hampshire?

John Warren: What's a Tahitian-love-fest?

[Henry and Tom smile]

Tom Lefroy: Was I deficient in rapture?

Jane Austen: In consciousness!

Judge Langlois: Wild companions, gambling, running around St James's like a neck-or-nothing young blood of the fancy. What kind of lawyer will that make?

Tom Lefroy: Typical.

Tom Lefroy: I have been told there is much to see upon a walk, but all I've detected so far is a general tendency to green above and brown below.

Jane Austen: Yes, well, others have detected more. It is celebrated. There's even a book about Selborne Wood.

Tom Lefroy: Oh. A novel, perhaps?

Jane Austen: Novels? Being poor, insipid things, read by mere women, even, God forbid, written by mere women?.

Tom Lefroy: I see, we're talking of your reading.

Jane Austen: As if the writing of women did not display the greatest powers of mind, knowledge of human nature, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour and the best-chosen language imaginable?

Henry Austen: What do you make of Mr. Lefroy?

Jane Austen: We're honoured by his presence.

Eliza De Feuillide: You think?

Jane Austen: He does, with his preening, prancing, Irish-cum-Bond-Street airs.

Henry Austen: Jane.

Jane Austen: Well, I call it very high indeed, refusing to dance when there are so few gentleman. Henry, are all your friends so disagreeable?

Henry Austen: Jane.

Jane Austen: Where exactly in Ireland does he come from, anyway?

Tom Lefroy: [coming up behind Jane] Limerick, Miss Austen.

Henry Austen: Careful, Jane, Lucy is right. Mr. Lefroy does have a reputation.

Jane Austen: Presumably as the most disagreeable

[writing]

Jane Austen: "... insolent, arrogant, impudent, insufferable, impertinent of men. "

Jane Austen: [pauses] Too many adjectives.

Lucy Lefroy: [talking about Ton Lefroy] Green velvet coat. Vastly fashionable.

John Warren: [talking to Tom Lefroy] You'll find this vastly amusing.

Tom Lefroy: Was I deficient in rapture?

Jane Austen: Inconsciousness!

Tom Lefroy: It was... It was accomplished.

Jane Austen: It was ironic.

Jane Austen: This, by the way, is called a country dance, after the French, contredanse. Not because it is exhibited at an uncouth rural assembly with glutinous pies, execrable Madeira, and truly anarchic dancing.

Tom Lefroy: You judge the company severely, madam.

Jane Austen: I was describing what you'd be thinking.

Tom Lefroy: Allow me to think for myself.

Jane Austen: Gives me leave to do the same, sir, and come to a different conclusion.

Tom Lefroy: Good morning, sir.

Judge Langlois: Good morning? Has the world turned topsy?

Tom Lefroy: If there is a shred of truth or justice inside of you, you cannot marry him.

Jane Austen: Oh no, Mr. Lefroy. Justice, by your own admission, you know little of, truth even less.

Tom Lefroy: Jane, I have tried. I have tried and I cannot live this lie. Can you?

Tom Lefroy: [turns Jane's head towards himself] Jane, can you?

Cassandra Austen: You'll lose everything. Family, place. For what? A lifetime of drudgery on a pittance? A child every year and no means to lighten the load? How will you write, Jane?

Jane Austen: I do not know, but happiness is within my grasp and I cannot help myself.

Cassandra Austen: There is no sense in this.

Jane Austen: If you could have your Robert back, even like this, would you do it?

Tom Lefroy: Hampshire, your home county.

Jane Austen: It was.

Tom Lefroy: If you wish to practice the art of fiction, to be the equal of a masculine author, experience is vital.

Jane Austen: I see. And what qualifies you to offer this advice?

Tom Lefroy: I know more of the world.

Jane Austen: A great deal more, I gather.

Tom Lefroy: Enough to know that your horizons must be... widened.

Jane Austen: [after Tom loses a boxing match] Forgive me if I suspect in you a sense of justice.

Tom Lefroy: I am a lawyer. Justice plays no part in the law.

Jane Austen: Is that what you believe?

Tom Lefroy: I believe it. I must.

Lucy Lefroy: Laverton Fair. Vastly entertaining. Monstrous good idea, Jane.

Tom Lefroy: Yes, Miss Austen, not exactly your usual society, I'd say.

Jane Austen: Show a little imagination, Mr. Lefroy.

Tom Lefroy: ...your horizons must be... widened, by an extraordinary young man.

Jane Austen: By a very dangerous young man, one who has, no doubt, infected the hearts of many a young... young woman with the soft corrup...

Tom Lefroy: Read this

[hands Jane a book]

Jane Austen: -tion...

Tom Lefroy: and you will understand.

Mrs. Austen: Hurry along, Jane! We'll be late!

Jane Austen: When Her Ladyship calls, we must obey.

Lady Gresham: Monsieur le Comte is not here to pay his respects?

Eliza De Feuillide: A prior engagement, ma'am, Monsieur le Comte was obliged to pay his respects to Madame le Guillotine.

Judge Langlois: [speaking to Tom Lefroy] If you hope, I say hope... If you aspire to inherit my property, you must prove yourself more worthy.

Judge Langlois: But what do we find?. We find dissipation wild enough to glut the imaginings of a Hottentot braggadocio.

Judge Langlois: [Tom just joked about lawyers] Humour? Well, you're going to need that because I'm teaching you a lesson. I'm sending you to stay with your other relations, the Lefroys.

Tom Lefroy: Uncle, they live in the country.

Judge Langlois: Deep in the country.

[chuckles]

Tom Lefroy: Miss? Miss? Miss...

Jane Austen: Austen.

Tom Lefroy: Mr. Lefroy.

Jane Austen: Yes, I know, but I am alone.

Tom Lefroy: Except for me.

Jane Austen: Exactly.

Mrs. Austen: How many times did you stand up with that gentleman, Jane?

Lucy Lefroy: Was it twice?

Henry Austen: Twice would have been partial. Thrice would have been absolutely...

Lucy Lefroy: Flagrant.

Mrs. Lefroy: [referring to Ton Lefroy] Lucy would marry him tomorrow, and what a terrible husband he would make.

Eliza De Feuillide: I suppose you mean his reputation. Experience can recommend a man.

Tom Lefroy: [after reading an excerpt about swifts] Your ignorance is understandable since you lack... What shall we call it? The history?

Jane Austen: Propriety commands me to ignorance.

Tom Lefroy: Condemns you to it and your writing to the status of female accomplishment. If you wish to practice the art of fiction, to be the equal of a masculine author, experience is vital.

Jane Austen: I have read your book. I have read your book and disapprove.

Tom Lefroy: Of course you do.

Tom Lefroy: Vice leads to difficulty, virtue to reward. Bad characters come to bad ends.

Jane Austen: Exactly. But in life, bad characters often thrive. Take yourself.

Jane Austen: [at Laverton Fair] Trouble here enough.

Tom Lefroy: And freedom, the freedom of men. Do not you envy it?

Jane Austen: But I have the intense pleasure of observing it so closely.

Rev Austen: Her heart is stirred.

Mrs. Austen: It's a summer squall. Mr. Lefroy will soon be gone. And Mr Wisley will still be waiting, I hope.

Tom Lefroy: What rules of conduct apply in this rural situation? We have been introduced, have we not?

Jane Austen: What value is there in an introduction when you cannot even remember my name? Indeed, can barely stay awake in my presence.

Mrs. Radcliffe: Of what do you wish to write?

Jane Austen: Of the heart.

Mrs. Radcliffe: Do you know it?

Jane Austen: Not all of it.

Mrs. Radcliffe: In time, you will. But even if that fails, that's what the imagination is for.

Mrs. Austen: You could persuade her.

Rev Austen: To sacrifice her happiness? Jane should have not the man who offers the best price, but the man she wants.

Lady Gresham: My nephew, Miss Austen, condescends far indeed in offering to the daughter of an obscure and impecunious clergyman.

Jane Austen: Impecunious? Your Ladyship is mistaken.

Lady Gresham: I am never mistaken.

Judge Langlois: Welcome...

Tom Lefroy: [walks in a circle and discreetly reminds his uncle] Madame le Comtesse.

Judge Langlois: Madame le Comtesse. Seldom, too seldom, my house receives the presence of nobility. And, of course, its friends. Please.

Tom Lefroy: I have no money, no property, I am entirely dependent upon that bizarre old lunatic, my uncle. I cannot yet offer marriage, but you must know what I feel. Jane, I'm yours. God, I'm yours. I'm yours, heart and soul. Much good that is.

Jane Austen: Let me decide that.

Tom Lefroy: What will we do?

Jane Austen: What we must.

Tom Lefroy: I... I depend entirely upon...

Jane Austen: Upon your Uncle. And I depend on you. So what will you do?

Tom Lefroy: What I must. I have a duty to my family, Jane. I must think of them as well as...

Jane Austen: Tom... Is that... Is that all you have to say to me?

Jane Austen: Goodbye, Mr. Lefroy.

Jane Austen: It's something I began in London. It is the tale of a young woman. Two young women. Better than their circumstances.

Cassandra Austen: So many are.

Jane Austen: And two young gentlemen who receive much better than their deserts as so very many do.

Jane Austen: You asked me a question. I am ready to give you an answer. But there is one matter to be settled. I cannot make you out, Mr Wisley. At times, you are the most gentlemanlike man I know and yet you would...

Mr. Wisley: "Yet". What a sad word.

Jane Austen: Tell me about your lady, Mr. Lefroy. From where does she come?

Tom Lefroy: She's from County Wexford.

Jane Austen: Your own country. Excellent. What was it that won her?. Your manner, smiles and pleasing address?

Jane Austen: How many brothers and sisters do you have in Limerick, Tom?

Tom Lefroy: Enough. Why?

Jane Austen: What are the names of your brothers and sisters?

Tom Lefroy: They...

Jane Austen: On whom do they depend?

Mr. Wisley: The good do not always come to good ends. It is a truth universally acknowledged.

Jane Austen: [writing] "... that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. "