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Passing the Word: Courage, Judgment, and What We Choose to Notice
In Emma , by Jane Austin, the quietness of a game makes it eligible to Mr. Woodhouse. The letters of a word are used as a vehicle for gallantry and trickery. Frank Churchill proposes, with a glance to Jane, to pass a word to Emma. Mrs. Weston is convinced that it must be a relief to Miss Fairfax to be able to speak of Miss Fairfax’s engagement. Miss Fairfax admits that since her engagement she has not experienced a single tranquil hour. Emma questions if Miss Fairfax consider


From Drawing Rooms to Hyperplanes: Listening, Truth, and the Work of Defending Human Dignity
In Emma , by Jane Austen, Mr. Knightley tells Emma that he said to himself that even Emma would think that Harriet Smith and John Martin were a good match. Emma asserts that Martin is her societal inferior. Mr. Knightly questions how it could be a degradation to her illegitimacy and ignorance to be married to a respectable, gentleman farmer. Looking back on her interactions with Mr. Elton, Emma assures herself that his manners must have been unmarked, wavering, or doubtful fo


Feeding the Mind, Honoring the Heart
When the Darweesh family makes the trip down to Alamaxa by rail in The Daughters of Izdihar , by Hadeer Elsbai, Nehal’s father doesn’t look at her the entire ride. Knowing she is in Alamaxa when she steps of the rail, she wonders how women in the city wear such heavy attire when it is so damn hot all the time. When Nehal starts to peel the robe from her shoulders, her mother tugs it back on. Giorgina finds solitude nowhere to be found. There is something vaguely familiar abou
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