> 'Economy with the truth' is a phrase that's come to mean not being entirely straightforward or honest. But this, from Emma, exemplifies another possible meaning:
Within half an hour it was known all over Highbury. It was the very event to engage those who talk most... all the youth and servants in the place were soon in the happiness of frightful news.The happiness of frightful news: everyone knows the truth in that; there it is in five words.
> A friend in Perth wrote to draw my attention to a remark by Rex Stout, which you can find here:
I used to think that men did everything better than women, but that was before I read Jane Austen. I don't think any man ever wrote better than Jane Austen.> In the same ballpark, but on a lighter note, Rosie Bell lists the jobs suitable for the young women in Jane Austen's novels. For instance:
Of her [Lizzie Bennet's] four sisters, there is Jane Bennet who believes the best of everybody so she can be a much put upon social worker, who is careful not to be "judgemental"; Mary Bennet, who mistakes jargon for knowledge, can teach Cultural Studies somewhere...See the rest of Rosie's suggestions.