Women Born In The 19th Century

"Pitied? Horrid thought. The great thing in life was to be so situated that you can pity others. But to be pitied yourself?"

"She was an exceedingly pretty girl, who ought to have been enjoying herself. She had a soft, irregular face, charming eyes, dimples, a pleasant laugh, and limbs were long and slender. Certainly she ought to have been enjoying herself. Instead, she wasted her time in that foolish pondering over the puzzles of existence, over those unanswerable whys and wherefores, which is as a rule restricted, among women, to the elderly and plain."

"Looking out of the club window into —hers was an economical club, but convenient for , where she lived, and for 's, where she shopped—Mrs. Wilkins, having stood there for some time very drearily, her mind's eye on the Mediterranean in April, and the , and the enviable opportunities of the rich, while her bodily eye watched the really falling steadily on the hurrying umbrellas and splashing , suddenly wondered whether this was not the rainy day Mellersh—Mellersh was Mr. Wilkins—had so often encouraged her to prepare for, and whether to get out of such a climate and into the small mediaeval castle wasn't perhaps what had all along intended her to do with her savings. Part of her savings, of course; perhaps quite a small part."

"You see, what has happened has taken away my faith in goodness—I don't know who you are that I keep on wanting to tell things to, but I must talk and tell you. Yes; that it is what it has done; and the hurt goes too far down to be healed. Yet I know time is a queer, wholesome thing. I've lived long enough to have found that out. It is very sanitary. It cleans up everything. It never fails to sterilize and purify."

"Once I knew a bishop rather intimately—oh, nothing that wasn't most creditable to us both—and he said to me, "Dear child, you will always be happy if you are good." I'm afraid he couldn't have been quite candid, or else he was very inexperienced, for I have never been so terribly good in the bishop's sense as these last three years—turning my back on every private wish, dreadfully unselfish, devoted, a perfect monster of goodness. And unhappiness went with me every step of the way."

"By the time she was twenty-four, nearly all the girls who had when she did were married, and she felt as though she were a ghost haunting the s of a younger generation."

"Hugh Walpole was tutor to Elizabeth's children during her time at , as was E.M. Forster, who was a Cambridge friend of Elizabeth's nephew, . In later years, Forster was to recall his inconspicuous arrival at the , 'his average welcome' ... by the von Arnims, as well as his genuine appreciation of Elizabeth 'as a writer'. ... Though he also insisted that personally, the two, 'were never — or almost never! — in sympathy'. ..."

"... Whether in or New York, London or , von Arnim’s settings almost always tell the reader about the insufferable constraints placed upon the women who inhabit them. Elizabeth von Arnim was also brilliant at men, or rather at skewering their behaviour, usually with the help of outlandish names. Married men, in particular, are targeted as they ignore their wives, whine about their misfortunes, or want fish for breakfast. They also lie, cheat, bully, and diminish. Von Arnim made frequent and barely disguised use of the men in her life. The husband of Elizabeth and her German Garden, based closely on her own, is referred to as ‘the Man of Wrath’, a bald-faced hint that, for all of its delights, Elizabeth was only superficially a book about gardens. Subsequent lovers, including H.G. Wells and publisher (thirty years her junior), also became fodder for her fiction. So did her second husband, , brother of the more famous Bertrand and a human bulldozer who pursued von Arnim in various forms for perceived damages long after their separation. Von Arnim tended to hide such unpleasantness under the guise of humour, at which she was unequivocally brilliant (P.G. Wodehouse must surely have been inspired by her novels). Clergy, relatives, dogs, and toddlers all come with laugh-out-loud descriptions, while her skill at satire rests upon ruthlessly close observation filtered through playful, often inventive language or placed in biting juxtaposition. But underneath – whether taking aim at dismissive doctors or overbearing fathers or the bizarre niceties of the – bristles a bitterness that goes beyond the waspishness of say, Muriel Spark, as von Arnim exposes the societal structures used to limit the autonomy and opportunity of her female characters."

"Elizabeth von Arnim is probably best remembered as the author of ' (1898) and ' (1922), and as the elder cousin of Katherine Mansfield. In recent times, fresh scholarship has begun has begun to reinstate van Arnim into the cultural milieu of which she was a significant part, while research into the complex relationship between Mansfield and her cousin has done much to shed light on the familial, personal and literary connections between these unlikely friends. ... Although their lives appeared to be very different (Mansfield's largely one of penurious poor health, von Arnim's chiefly one of robust privilege), we know each experienced the other's influential presence. They read and commented on each other's work, and Manfield's critical assessments became part of the widespread reception of von Arnim's writing, while von Arnim's skill as as an author seeped into her cousin's youthful aspirations and into her firs collection of stories, ' (1911)."

"Father ... appeared to take it for granted that his daughter would continue about him as before, side by side with his new wife, on the ground that homes were the natural places for maiden daughters; and when she reminded him that she was thirty-three, he merely inquired with acerbity, for in his heart he was thinking that she ought to have been married and out of the way long ago, whether being thirty-three altered the fact that she was a maiden daughter."

"Father was very pleasant indeed, if faintly apologetic — not embarrassed, for he was never that, but there was a faint flavour of apology in his manner, which was perhaps not to be wondered at, since his new wife was ever so much younger, one could see at once, than his daughter, and he sixty-five. "You mustn't think, Jennifer," he said after , which had been the oddest meal of her life, as he called her into the back diningroom where protected by folding doors from anything that might be going on in the front one, they had worked together so long — she the obedient handmaid waiting on his thoughts, taking them down as they emerged from him, typing and retyping them, over and over again with dogged patience typing a single paragraph, a single sentence, sometimes for days working on a single sentence till it was, in father's eyes, as near perfect as it could humanly be got, — "you mustn't think, Jennifer," he said, "that I've sprung this on you unfairly.""

"... Books have their idiosyncrasies as well as people, and will not show me their full beauties unless the place and time in which they are read suits them. If, for instance, I cannot read Thoreau in a drawing-room, how much less would I ever dream of reading Boswell in the grass by a pond! Imagine carrying him off in company with his great friend to a lonely dell in a rye-field, and expecting them to be entertaining. "Nay, my dear lady," the great man would say in mighty tones of rebuke, "this will never do. Lie in a rye-field? What folly is that? And who would converse in a damp hollow that can help it?" So I read and laugh over my Boswell in the library when the lamps are lit, buried in cushion and surrounded by every sign of civilisation, with the drawn curtains shutting out the garden and the country solitude so much disliked by both sage and disciple. Indeed, It is Bozzy who asserts that in the country the only things that make him happy are meals."

""... I haven't had much time to think, have I? But I can't stay here," said Jen quickly ... "There isn't room for two women in this house. It simply wouldn't hold us both." No; that was precisely what he had been thinking. Though he never, being a decent father, would have said so, it was perfectly true. The house, except extremely awkwardly, couldn't hold them both. No house had yet been built which could hold, in peace and comfort, a maiden daughter approaching middle age, and a young second wife. But that Jennifer should see this at once, and clearly, was the last thing he had dreamed of."

"What a happy woman I am, living in a garden, with books, babies, birds, and flowers, and plenty of leisure to enjoy them! Yet my town acquaintances look upon it as imprisonment, and burying, and I don't what besides, and would rend the air with their shrieks if condemned to such a life. Sometimes I fell as if I were blest above all my fellows in being able to find my happiness so easily."

"Beauty; beauty. What was the good of beauty, once it was over? It left nothing behind it but acid regrets, and no heart at all to start fresh. Nearly everything else left something."

"Still, she did seem to have shrunk. Now why should she have shrunk? he wondered, aggrieved. He hadn't; quite the contrary. However, he mustn't mind. She was Fanny, presently to be his Fanny, and he mustn't mind any little alterations. What he did mind mind was that, like Soames, she appeared not to recognize him. She soon would, though, he told himself; and he went over to her determined and confident, lifted her unresisting hand, kissed it with all the fervor of happy reunion, and said with what he felt was immense tact and presence of mind, "I would have known you anywhere." Fanny was much too astonished to speak. She stared at the head bent over her hand. Who was this bald man?"

"The temple is the concrete shape (mūrti) of the Essence; as such it is the residence and vesture of God. The masonry is the sheath (kośa) and body. The temple is the monument of manifestation."

"Although the enthroned figure with its large head and sex organ defies identification, it is like figures shown—the other unidentified—in a yoga posture. On either side of the enthroned yogi and above his arms, a tiger and an elephant are on his right, a rhinoceros and buffalo on his left, and two antelopes are below, that is, in front of his throne. The composition of this steatite relief is hieratic. The horn-crowned and enthroned yogi forms an isosceles triangle whose axis connects the middle of the bifurcating horns, the long nose, and the erect phallus of the deity."

"The "time" of Prajapati, or Prajapati’s Time, allowed itself to be laid out spatially in a work of architecture. The time of Shiva flowed into the movement of the limbs of Shiva, the lord of the dance. Works of sculpture and architecture demonstrate, each in its own form, the time of which they are the symbols. The building of the Vedic altar, by the accompanying words of the sacred rite of architecture, is self-explanatory. Symbolically, time—the time of the seasons—was built into the altar. The form of the altar comprised time, conceived, as it were, in terms of space."

"She rejected the Christianity of her parents and joined the philosophical and spiritualist Theosophical Society. She dressed eccentrically, favouring sandals over tight boots, and when travelling would wear two dresses at once to save the bother of having to take a suitcase"

"After the Boer War I saw that Boer and Briton would have to unite, but would they try to do it at the cost of their dark brothers"

"One of the most influential women in South Africa during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries"

"Brehm’s speaking was described as eloquent, fluent and graceful making an appeal… to the logical faculties with but little of the gift of humor."

"Marie Brehm believed it was time for women to make changes in society. Perhaps her philosophy can be summed up in these words spoken in June 1924."

"Your gift of seeing into the heart of things is so great and you have control of such exquisite language for expressing moral and spiritual aspects."

"She trained to be a teacher, refused to marry, and when she turned thirty, decided to study further at the all-female Newnham College at Cambridge"

"Rachel had definite opinions on just about any topic and had little trouble expressing herself. On the subject of women’s fashion, she was delighted to see women shortening their skirts so they no longer swept dusty, dirty streets."

"Yet she had no intention of retiring to a quiet life. She never wanted to be just an old lady with nothing to do."

"I like to keep up with the fashions, but I had enough of long skirts when I was a girl. My dresses suit me fine when they’re just a little below the knee, and I hope sincerely that styles never take the hemline to the ankle again."

"If smoking were abolished it would be a benefit to mankind. It’s all nonsense about tobacco quieting the nerves. If the men did not use it they would not be nervous."

"Beauty depends more upon the movement of the face than upon the form of the features when at rest. Thus a countenance habitually under the influence of amiable feelings acquires a beauty of the highest order, from the frequency with which such feelings are the originating causes of the movement or expressions which stamp their character upon it."

"Alas! how truly did he tell her, that the love of ornament creeps slowly, but surely, into the female heart;—that the girl who twines the lily in her tresses, and looks at herself in the clear stream, will soon wish that the lily was fadeless, and the stream a mirror."

"Annie White Baxter is remembered as a political trailblazer not only for Missouri, but for U.S. history."

"Today, we honor her contributions to policy and the impact she had on Missouri’s rich history by commemorating her in our state capitol."

"At Carthage High School, where she graduated in 1882, she was said to be the most outspoken, most aggressive and most commanding person in her class."

"Her father was the operator of a Carthage furniture factory with a better than average income. Thus, Annie was accustomed to the good life, a gracious home and the admiration of her fellow students."

"Mrs. Axtell’s exceptional business qualifications do not detract a whit from her womanly attributes, and the merry twinkle in her eye demonstrates the gladness with which she imbues every duty"

"Known for her courage and sense of humor, she broke ground for women in Northwest and national politics."

"Pegg Clarke (Melbourne) has made of photography a consummate art. On gazing at her photographs, several of what one might aptly term "treescapes" having a soft melting grace reminiscent of a Corot without colouring, makes it absolutely indifferent to academic discussions of whether photography is an art or a craft."

"As the first woman elected to this position, she served as an inspiring example for other women aspiring to enter politics. Her presence in the legislature allowed her to directly influence laws that benefitted women and children while advancing the overall cause of suffrage within the state, which ultimately helped pave the way for broader acceptance of women in political roles."

"Newspapers across the country – including the New York Times – heralded the news of her accomplishment, saying she displayed neither “embarrassment” nor “confusion” as she spoke before other delegates, who elegantly referred to her as “The Lady from Clark."

"As Supreme Court clerk, she was concerned that the public had an accurate and wholesome understanding of and appreciation for the court and its function in the promotion of the common well being through equal and fair justice for all"

"The next four years will see the accomplishment of many of the dreams and programs of Governor Bailey, and it is but natural that I want to be a part of that administration. Tom Bailey worked hard for Mississippi, and I shall endeavor to give my best to the state he loved so well."

"We are just beginning to open our eyes in politics, but before long we are going to make ourselves felt, and you can depend on Annie Simms Banks, of Winchester, to do her part for the grand old party."

"Mrs. Bailey was a woman of unusual personal charm and outstanding ability."

"Women could be politicians if they were willing to work and sacrifice."

"Miss Clarke has an eye for something other than the merely picturesque, and most of our painters might study the composition of these carefully-selected subjects with profit. Some of the Australian photographs, in particular, should make our realistic painters sit up and take notice."

"All men are created equally free and independent. Those words will take on a more complete meaning for the women… of Vermont."

"One of life's most comforting extras is love of the land…I see here the same land which the Northrop Family knew for nearly two centuries…I feel close to the America I knew in days gone by and because I feel free here…I feel the love of those whom I have known there which today still gives me a feeling of confidence, protection and peace."

"Frances Axtell's advocacy work had a lasting influence on both local and national movements for women's rights by highlighting the importance of political engagement and representation for women. Her successful election as a legislator not only advanced local initiatives but also sent a powerful message nationally about women's capabilities in leadership roles."