Col. Brandon obsession

Colonel Brandon, as played by Alan Rickman is reading aloud some lines from Spenser's Faerie Queene, Canto V, Bk 2, lines 39-43: and we hear:

What though the sea with waves continuall
Doe eate the earth, it is no more at all...
Nor is the earth the lesse, or loseth aught.
For whatsoever from one place doth fall,
Is with the tide unto another brought...
For there is nothing lost, but may be found, if sought ...
[sigh]

Isn't he just the BEST!? Col. Brandon and Miss Marianne's courtship is one of the most satisfying of all the Austen stories, I think. Or, as Josiah says, "All's well that ends well." And I think Rickman does such a great job. At least, he's way more attractive than the guy on the "Men of Austen" site. ["pick me!"]

Ellen Moody, on her website says this:

I see Thompson as through this allusion suggesting the theme of loss that I have just argued Austen intended, a loss that is loss, but that can and may be repaired. If we think of the close of Persuasion with the retrieval of Wentworth and Anne's love leaving them more appreciative of what they had almost lost, we can see a wholeness of vision in Austen's oeuvre. Page Last Update 1 March 2003

I think she's right that Jane Austen works on this theme often. And so does Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre. Jane and Mr. Rochester are lost to each other for all but a few pages of Jane Eyre. But when they get together, they have both given up and gained something, each of them, that makes them whole.

I've been thinking about S&S a lot with the PBS Austen Marathon going on. Plus, this morning it was raining off and on. And I am just like Marianne when it comes to walking - whenever I go out and say it won't rain - it does. This morning in Philly was no exception.