little miss austin

Alice Austin sat on the windowsill, which was just big enough for her little one.

glass windows.

Wooden window sills with mottled white paint.

Single layer linen curtains.

The handmade cushion is just the right size, filled with warm and comfortable cotton, but the outer fabric is a rough cotton-linen blend. The reason is that the reason is that the cushion does not need muslin, and muslin should be used for comfortable nightdresses and underwear.

The family is not financially struggling. My mother buys bundles of colored muslin every year to make home dresses and ball dresses for her two sisters, Cassandra and Jane. The reason why I can wear the skirts of my sisters when they were young, or the old skirts of my sisters’ teenage years, is of course because children have different styles every year, and a piece of clothing can only be worn for two seasons at most before it can’t be worn anymore.

Henry and Jane are not at home today, they have the best relationship, and they are a little bit rebellious.The two women with the same name didn't have time to take care of Alice, so they just let her stay on the windowsill.

Yesterday she was dazzled by the 1 pound, and forgot that she went to the study to find some books. Fortunately, Jane did not forget this. In addition to borrowing a few books for herself, she also brought two books to Alice. book back.

There were no books suitable for a 6-year-old girl at Goethe Musham Manor. Jane picked out two gothic adventure novels for her, and she took one of them at this time, but she didn't really read it seriously.

English at the end of the 18th century is somewhat different from English in the 21st century. Pastor George is a good teacher, but she must not be too bright. All the children in the Austin family were raised by Pastor George. Jane and Charles had brothers when they were young. They can teach them, and when Alice is born, only Papa can educate her in the family.

After making a difficult choice between "be low-key" and "be famous early", Alice chose the former.Being a child prodigy in this era is tiring, and being a child prodigy may be even more tiring. After all, the status of women in this era is really low. Women have no property rights, which means that they have no personal rights. Before marriage, it belongs to the father and brothers. After marriage, it belongs to the husband. Marriage Afterwards, your husband can legally control all your money. Even when women write books and publish them, most of the time they cannot sign their real names, and they cannot use their real identities to sign contracts. They must be signed by their father, brother or husband.

Due to the lack of contraceptive methods, women will enter a cycle of endless childbirth after marriage. Mother Cassandra married at the age of 25 and gave birth to 40 children by the age of 8. The ninth child was an accident; and Edward His wife Elizabeth, married at the age of 9, is only 18 years old this year and is already the mother of 22 children.

Aristocratic women cannot avoid the fate of becoming a reproductive machine. For example, Queen Marie Antoinette, who was sent to the guillotine by the people of Paris in 1793, was born to Queen Maria Theresa of Austria. 15 kids!

In Alice's view, this is an extremely terrible thing.

But fortunately, she still has almost 15 years to think about marriage, so there is no need to start worrying now.

The financial burden of the Austin family is not heavy now. There are 6 boys in the family. Except for the second brother George, all of them have income; Her parents did not prevent her from visiting her neighbours, for there were not many suitable young men to be found in the small village of Steventon; Alice was young and had little to spend.

The second brother, George, has the same name as his father. It is said that when he was 3 years old, he had a high fever and burned his brain. He also lost his hearing.It's not that my mother didn't want to take care of him, it's just that the children in the family were born one after another, and she couldn't do it at all.

Brother George is 29 years old now, and his intelligence is about the same as that of a 5-year-old child. The village women raised him very well, and he looks tall and big.He would come over most of the day, and Alice would sometimes play with him. George was very patient, knowing that she was his little sister, and he was willing to take her to play, and he was also willing to lie down on the ground for her to ride as a horse, but this The game is also not very fun, and I gave up after playing a few times.

Because it was Christmas, Pastor George's private classroom had been closed since mid-November, and Alice, who had no classes and no homework, was bored.There are a lot of books in the house, some of them are religious books, the Bible, needless to say, is in every room, even the maid has a copy in her pocket, Alice's "initiative reading" is the Bible.There are also several other books and treatises on religion.The other half are all kinds of books, and even some pornographic novels.

Alice was particularly obsessed with the records of "exorcism" in the summer. Later, Pastor George told her about it specifically, saying that since the witch-hunting trend in the Middle Ages, England has hardly heard of any exorcism cases. , asked her where she heard it, and Alice suddenly realized that she might have been fooled by the movies and TV shows of later generations, and she made a nonsense excuse, saying that she was at Mrs. Lefroy’s house, and she heard it from Lucy. Mrs. Roy's youngest daughter is 15 years old.

Of course, Pastor George couldn't go to Mrs. Lefroy or Lucy to verify the authenticity of this story, so he let her go gently, asking her not to listen to these anecdotes from others outside in the future.

Alice soon lost interest in religion.

Now she reads some literary works. Of course, she has read such essential books as Shakespeare, as well as some famous modern works, poetry and prose.After solving the problem of vocabulary, she reads surprisingly fast, but she is cautious, and no one in the family knows that she is a fast reader.

After spending half the afternoon reading a Gothic novel, Alice left the window sill, went to the kitchen to find a few oatmeal biscuits to pad her belly, and chased a brood of chickens with branches in the yard with George's brother. Mom ran out and told them both to stop.Brother George quickly picked her up and ran away.

"Run! Mother is going to beat someone!" Alice yelled, not caring that Brother George couldn't hear her.

Before dinner time, Henry and Jane came back.

Alice asked strangely: "Why didn't Mrs. Lefroy invite you to eat today?"

Jane glared at her angrily.

Alice rolled her eyes and went to see Henry.Henry made a face at her and whispered, "Jane is angry."

Jane looked very angry, "Don't talk about this!" Angrily, she went upstairs and returned to her room.

"Who messed with her?" Alice's eyes widened. "She's seldom so angry."

"It's all Tom's fault."

"Which Tom?"

"Mrs. Lefroy's nephew, or rather, Mr. Lefroy's nephew."

"Oh, I know, you mentioned it, your 'friend'." She deliberately said the word "friend" heavily.

Henry smiled slyly, "He offended Jane, what a rash guy!"

"Didn't he study in London? How did he get to Ash?"

"He's on vacation." Henry waved his hand indifferently, "Jane is in a bad mood, so don't mess with her, be good. Tom will come to visit in a few days, I told him, he can do anything Deal with it, only my little sister won't allow him to deal with it casually. I want him to think about what gift a 6-year-old girl would like."

Henry was triumphant, "Now it's up to him what to do!"

Alice didn't care about what was going on between the two friends at all, "Don't worry about it, just give me the money, just 1 pound."

Henry almost thumped the ground.He stretched out his hand and pinched her cheek, "Tell me, you are such a little thing, how do you know the magic power of money now?!"

Alice avoided her brother's claws, "If you don't have money, you can't do it."

When Alice saw Tom Lefroy, she breathed a sigh of relief for no reason: she is indeed a good-looking talent, otherwise, how could Jane, who has high eyesight, like him?

Also, unlike James McAvoy, she didn't wear it in the movie after all, and also, when they met in the movie, it seemed to be summer—or was it spring?Anyway, it's not winter.

The young man was all smiles, and praised Alice sweetly, calling her the cutest and most beautiful little girl he had ever seen.

Alice didn't understand. Obviously this guy studied law, so he should be very smooth-talking and good at talking. Why did he have such an unpleasant quarrel with Jane when he first met?Just for this bad first impression, how did Jane like him later?Maybe it's really just looking at the face.

But maybe that's why Jane is so impressed with him?

Also, are they—planning to elope?

Elopement is a scandal for the families of both men and women.In rural England, there are no gossip tabloids. People's mouths are the channel for gossips to spread. Even literary young women like Jane Austen like to listen to gossip.Not long ago, the Austin family also expressed their views on an attempted elopement in the parish of Dean.

Pastor George thought that the man had a bad character, and that an upright young man should not do something to abduct a girl; after the mother scolded the man for being shameless, she said that the girl was too stupid, and elopement was not only hurting herself, but also hurting her family ——Parents, brothers and sisters will be a shame; Cathy—that is, sister Cassandra—thinks that since two people love each other, they must work hard to overcome difficulties and persuade both parents to agree to their relationship; Jane is unexpectedly naive, Actually think that under certain conditions, elopement is worthy of sympathy.

Henry looked at it from the perspective of a young man, saying that the man was a coward, a coward, and unworthy of sympathy.

Because Alice is too young, she has no place to express her opinion.

But looking at the attitudes of the family members, I found that the sisters are a bit naive, especially Jane, which can be said to be completely in line with the personality of a silly, sweet country girl who is not deeply involved in the world.

The author has something to say:

*Tom Lefroy please automatically bring in Kazumi.Of course I couldn't write it when I wrote it: This guy looks just like Kazumi.

*Rewatching "Becoming Jane" a few days ago, I feel that Yimei still has a strange beauty. Obviously, the facial features are not exquisite except for the eyes, but they look very comfortable when combined.