🎁"[I'll] make her a present of a novel." The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter🎁 pg 71
From Pride and Prejudice Volume I Chapter 5 page 21:
“His pride,” said Miss Lucas, “does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.”
“That is very true,” replied Elizabeth, “and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
“Pride,” observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, “is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
From The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter pages 132-133
...I longed to offer comfort from the Commonplace Book... Before I could decide on a text, however, both Jane and Charlotte spoke, the former characteristically seeking to excuse Darcy's conduct while Charlotte attempted to excuse the inexcusable - his pride.
“His pride,” said Miss Lucas, “does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.”
“That is very true,” replied Elizabeth, “and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
And how I could no longer refrain from speaking. I had thought long and hard last night about the sin of pride - how one's view of one's fellow-creatures could be warped by utterly false (not to say unchristian) notions of superiority.
“Pride,” said I, trying to speak calmly, “is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
From Pride and Prejudice Volume I Chapter 5 page 63:
“In point of composition,” said Mary, “the letter does not seem defective. The idea of the olive-branch perhaps is not wholly new, yet I think it is well expressed.”
From The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter page 170:
I then spoke up: “In point of composition,” said Mary, “the letter does not seem defective. The idea of the olive-branch perhaps is not wholly new, yet I think it is well expressed.”
My father's dismissive glance was the only response I received. I knew of course that my own idea had not been well expressed: I ought rather to have praised the gesture of the olive-brance, surely a difficult one for a young man to make in the circumstances. But I could not speak again. My father's contempt was having its usual effect on me.
From The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter page 213:
The silence that followed was dreadful. They were eyeing each other like two cats, and in my nervousness I made things worse by quoting from the Commonplace Book: "It is said that politeness is the currency of a civilized society."
From Pride and Prejudice Volume III Chapter 47 pages 274-275:
“This is a most unfortunate affair, and will probably be much talked of. But we must stem the tide of malice, and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other the balm of sisterly consolation.”
Then, perceiving in Elizabeth no inclination of replying, she added, “Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson: that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”
Elizabeth lifted up her eyes in amazement, but was too much oppressed to make any reply. Mary, however, continued to console herself with such kind of moral extractions from the evil before them.
From The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter page 343:
I had the forsight to bring a book with me (Fanny Burney's Evelina)...
From The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter page 344:
I said the wrong thing, whispering: "This is a most unfortunate affair; and will probably be much talked of."
She made me no answer - she was helping herself to a dish of peas - and I noticed that her eye-lashes were wet (Elizabeth has the most beautiful long lashes) and suddenly I heard myself babbling from George' opera: "But we must stem the tide of malace and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other the balm of sisterly consolation."
Again, she made me no answer. She was handing me the peas. But I was determined now to comfort her: "Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson: that the loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable - that one false step involves her in endless ruin-"
The cherry brandy had undoubtedly befuddled me, for I had not meant to quote such uncompromising maxims. My eye fell on Evelina and I repeated the famous passage about a woman's reputation being both brittle and beautiful.
I really love this meta. Especially because with the original text, Mary seems a bit cold and heartless, spouting off Evangelical Christian didactic maxims when the entire Bennet family may soon be ruined by Lydia's disgrace. In The Forgotten Sister, Jennifer Paynter makes it clear that Mary wants to comfort her sister Elizabeth, and she takes inspiration from the book she is reading at the time, Evelina, but she doesn't realize how harsh it sounds until it is too late, and then she tries to rectify her error by quoting more of the book, and basically steps in it.
I can really relate to being socially awkward and searching for the right thing to say, and it not always coming out the way I intended it to.
I also love the 1995 and 1980 miniseries because Mary's speaking lines are almost identical to Jane Austen's novel.