A Bit More Austen

[deird_lj]

I've finally finished reading Persuasion, and enjoyed it quite a lot.

Anne Elliot was quite a nice heroine, especially in contrast to Fanny Price from Mansfield Park. Anne, like Fanny, was basically ignored and looked down on by her family, but she also had defects, and made bad decisions, and things like that - and consequently wasn't half so insufferable as Fanny was.
She also had a bit of Elizabeth Bennett's sense of humour, which was very refreshing.

Speaking of which... Jane Austen was reusing first names, which confused me quite a bit. This book had a Fanny, and an Elizabeth, and a Mary, and a Louisa. Switching from Really Cool Heroine Elizabeth to Snobby And Annoying Elizabeth took a lot of getting used to.
Plus, just within this book, there were three men named Charles, and three Captains: Captain Wentworth, Captain Harville, and Captain Benwick. And the Charles's all lived in the same village, and the Captains were all best friends! I had to keep re-reading paragraphs to figure out who was talking...

Once again, we had that standard Austen trope: the delightful young man who comes to the village and has all the ladies fall madly in love with him. Except this time, unusually, the man in question was not over-rated, or a scoundrel, or anything else of that nature (unlike Wickham, Frank Churchill, Henry Crawford, and Willoughby...).

It was nice, actually: for a while I was sure that Anne was going to marry Benwick and Louisa was going to marry Wentworth, but this being a Jane Austen, I knew perfectly well that Anne had to marry Wentworth (Austen is many things, but subtle ain't one of them). So instead, she switched them! and Anne and Wentworth strolled off into the sunset, and Louisa married Benwick! And somehow, she managed to make it very believable.

I do have one question, for anyone who's good with words.
In the middle of the book, when discussing Mr Elliot, Sir Walter describes him like this:

He did justice to his very gentlemanlike appearance, his air of elegance and fashion, his good shaped face, his sensible eye, but, at the same time, 'must lament his being very much underhung, a defect which time seemed to have increased; not could he pretend to say that ten years had not altered almost every feature for the worse'.

So here's my question: what the heck does "underhung" mean? I've been wracking my brains, but nothing's springing to mind. (Well... except for one possibility, but there's no way Jane Austen would have been writing about that.)
Anyone care to enlighten me?

At any rate, that's five down, and only one to go! I'm feeling very accomplished.

Comments

Underhung

[swellen.livejournal.com]

It means his lower jaw protrudes, like a bulldog. Well, more like a cartoon version of a bulldog...

Re: Underhung

[deird1]

Ohhh....
Thanks.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Glad you are enjoying them. Been years since I last read Jane Austen, but still have the books.

Really should do the Canterbury Tales I promised to re-read, then I might go back to them!

[deird1]

Wait: you've read the Canterbury Tales? The whole thing? And you're even going to read it again?
*is impressed by your snazzy literary skillz*

The Austen thing is all part of my long-term plan to become well-read. Next on the list are Mark Twain and Dickens...