I’m currently reading Emma by Jane Austen. Published in 1815, the story is set in a country village in Regency England.
A narrative of life and the daily goings on in the little country village, it is a comedy of manners about class rank, social conventions, and country society of the landed gentry in old England.
I’m enjoying reading it.
However, since language has evolved over time, I find myself sometimes pausing to re-read a sentence because the meaning escaped me the first time. The syntax is literary and unfamiliar. You would never hear someone speak in such a roundabout manner today, or meetings would never end!
I’ve also learnt a number of new words (or would they be considered old words?) that I have never come across in my modern life. I had no idea what a ‘tippet‘ was until I googled it. (It’s an article of women’s clothing; a type of scarf or shawl worn over the shoulders).
Or a ‘barouche landau‘. It is referred to multiple times in the book in an occasional joke.
Google tells me it was a fashionable four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a removable and retractable front and back cover.
This immediately reminded me of the quaint little horse-drawn carriage I had seen in Dresden last year. I suppose this is what one might call a barouche landau. (Picture from my trip to Dresden).
As I read, I find myself marvelling at how remarkably different, and yet how similar, modern life is. Our fashions and means of transportation may have undergone complete transformations, but people and their attitudes and behaviours feel so familiar.
How incredibly wonderful it is to be able to sit here in the 21st century, engrossed in this engaging narrative, and find myself privy to life, in all its aspects and charms, as it was over 200 years ago!
Lizanne Writes 