austen

Physical exertion in Jane Austen’s females


In his preface to Love and Friendship and Other Early Works, G K Chesterton writes:
These pages betray her secret; which is that she was naturally exuberant. And her power came, as all power comes, from the control and direction of exuberance.
Physical exaggeration characterises much of the short fiction. In The Beautifull Cassandra, the heroine:
proceeded to a Pastry-cooks where she devoured six ices, refused to pay for them, knocked down the Pastry Cook & walked away.
Unable to find any money to pay the coach driver, ’She placed her bonnet on his head & ran away.’. In A Tour through Wales Elizabeth describes in her letter how:
My Mother rode upon our little poney and Fanny and I walked by her side or
rather ran, for my Mother is so fond of riding fast that She galloped all the way. You may be sure we were in a fine perspiration when we came to our place of ...