It's well established in the book that Mrs Bennett was a beauty "in her youth" so this illustration made me laugh. At the time of the novel she'd likely be 45 at most (probably closer to 40) yet this artist chose to make her look a great deal older. ?
#JaneAustenThenAndNow @Crinoline_Laphroaig
KadaGul I think 🤔 at the time, 40 seemed like 90🤦♀️🤦♀️ 2mo
Crinoline_Laphroaig I'm really noticing now that at 58 I'm older than all the 'old' characters. 😄 2mo
bookandbedandtea @KadaGul Right! I used to think it was due to the lower life expectancy but then I learned that number is due to the high rate of childhood death. Once a person reached adulthood there was every reason to think they'd live into old age so the view of people Mrs Bennet's age being old still strikes me as weird. 🤔 2mo
bookandbedandtea @Crinoline_Laphroaig Same! I'm 56 and it's always a bit of a shock to realize that some old person in a book is a good deal younger than I am! 🤦♀️😆 2mo
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