As I read Regency-set romances by modern-day authors, I am saddened that the revered beauty of nineteenth century writing is largely tossed aside in preference for the plainer prose and dialogue of the twenty-first century. It is not only the way of life depicted in Jane Austen's novels that holds an intense charm for me; the style of her writing that immortalizes the language of the time is for me like a song of enchantment. I love the unique placement of her words and her flowery phrases. Too many of her present-day fans dislike her complicated syntax and shudder when they find it in a modern-day novel set in the Regency Era. Most only want a distant taste of the language of that time period. I understand why. I really do, but it is still unfortunate.
Below, I have selected a few examples of Jane Austen's beautiful phrases that present-day authors would likely find drastically altered by their editors or publishers and regarded as pretentious and annoying by their readers. Beneath each example, I have attempted to show a modern equivalent to the example and to demonstrate how much beauty is lost by writing the phrase in today's language. I am an old hardliner who deeply loves the historic writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Jane Austen's style is a lost art from a bygone era. In my rewrite of excerpts from Jane Austen's novels, the song in her syntax has almost been reduced to noise.
Pride and Prejudice: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
In today's style: Everyone knows that a rich man must need a wife.
Persuasion: Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.
In today's style: Tell me I'm in time and that you still love me.
Emma: I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him. If she can hesitate as to ‘Yes,’ she ought to say ‘No’ directly. It is not a state to be safely entered into with doubtful feelings, with half a heart.
In today's style: If a woman isn't sure she should accept a man, then she should refuse him. If she hesitates to say yes, she should say no. She shouldn't marry someone if she isn't certain.
Sense and Sensibility: I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both.
In today's style: I couldn't be happy with a man who didn't share my taste in everything. He must feel like I do and enjoy the same books, and he must enjoy the same music I do.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if obituaries told the truth? The people of a small town in Montana don t have to wonder because they have Lizzy Langston, the secret obituary writer for the local newspaper. With information she receives at an anonymous email address, she produces mostly humorous, sometimes poignant, but always truthful obituaries that magically appear between sections A and B of the morning paper.
Felicity~ A Sparrow's Tale by Loralee Evans
