Copy Book Archive

In Good Company Anne Elliot resents being expected to court the society of anyone simply because of social status.

In two parts

1817
Music: Muzio Clementi

© Maurice Pullin, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

Camden Crescent in Bath, one of several majestic curved terraces in the city, along with Royal Crescent and Lansdown Crescent.

In Good Company

Part 1 of 2

Anne Elliot’s snobbish father Sir Walter, of Camden Place in Bath, usually wastes no time on those who fall short of his exacting standards in beauty or manners. But as Anne complains to her attentive cousin, Mr Elliot, he makes a grovelling exception for his aristocratic relations, the Dalrymples.

LADY Dalrymple had acquired the name of ‘a charming woman,’ because she had a smile and a civil answer for everybody. Miss Carteret, with still less to say, was so plain and so awkward, that she would never have been tolerated in Camden Place but for her birth.

When Anne ventured to speak her opinion of them to Mr Elliot, he agreed to their being nothing in themselves, but still maintained that, as a family connexion, as good company, as those who would collect good company around them, they had their value.

Anne smiled and said, “My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.”

“You are mistaken,” said he gently, “that is not good company; that is the best.”

Jump to Part 2

Précis

Anne Elliot shares with her cousin her frustration at being asked to spend time with a rather empty-headed relation, Lady Dalrymple, simply because she and her daughter Miss Carteret are aristocrats. Anne’s cousin tries to reconcile her to it, by suggesting that Anne’s expectations of ‘good company’ are too exacting. (50 / 60 words)

Part Two

© Steve Daniels, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

The fountain in Laura Place, Bath.

“GOOD company requires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company; on the contrary, it will do very well.

“My cousin Anne shakes her head. She is not satisfied. She is fastidious. My dear cousin” (sitting down by her), “you have a better right to be fastidious than almost any other woman I know; but will it answer? Will it make you happy? Will it not be wiser to accept the society of those good ladies in Laura Place, and enjoy all the advantages of the connexion as far as possible?

“You may depend upon it, that they will move in the first set in Bath this winter, and as rank is rank, your being known to be related to them will have its use in fixing your family (our family let me say) in that degree of consideration which we must all wish for.”

“Yes,” sighed Anne, “we shall, indeed, be known to be related to them!”

Copy Book

Précis

Mr Elliot enlarges on his opinion that ‘good company’ requires little more than social status and civilised behaviour. He urges Anne not to shun her father’s colourless aristocratic relations, as their patronage will be noticed favourably in Bath. Anne, however, does not wish to be known as one of the Dalrymples’ hangers-on. (52 / 60 words)

Source

From Persuasion, by Jane Austen.

Suggested Music

1 2

Sonata in F-sharp minor Op. 25 No. 5 (same as Op. 26 No. 2)

2: Lento e patetico

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)

Played by Vladimir Horowitz.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Sonata in F-sharp minor Op. 25 No. 5 (same as Op. 26 No. 2)

3: Presto

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)

Played by Vladimir Horowitz.

Media not showing? Let me know!

How To Use This Passage

You can use this passage to help improve your command of English.

IRead it aloud, twice or more. IISummarise it in one sentence of up to 30 words. IIISummarise it in one paragraph of 40-80 words. IVMake notes on the passage, and reconstruct the original from them later on. VJot down any unfamiliar words, and make your own sentences with them later. VIMake a note of any words that surprise or impress you, and ask yourself what meaning they add to the words you would have expected to see. VIITurn any old-fashioned English into modern English. VIIITurn prose into verse, and verse into prose. IXAsk yourself what the author is trying to get you to feel or think. XHow would an artist or a photographer capture the scene? XIHow would a movie director shoot it, or a composer write incidental music for it?

For these and more ideas, see How to Use The Copy Book.

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