History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. . . I read it a little as a duty; but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all.
That’s the speech of a Jane Austen character whose role is to be rather foolish, though. Is it fair to call that “Jane Austen on history,” especially when that speech is promptly answered by a more “sensible”character with a different perspective?
Not that there isn’t a grain of truth in it!
Well, I just stole it from the other blog. I didn’t recognize it, though it may indeed be from a book I have read….
“Northanger Abbey.” The character speaking is the main character, a young lady whose head is full of Gothic novels but who could never attend to her studies as a child.