Re: Did J.A avoid reality?

Persuasion.

Given the period of the Napoleonic war in Europe which ended around the time of Jane Austen's sad demise, would she have, in her mind, had Frederick Wentworth leave the ocean waves and settle into life as a landlubber? The book doesn't really give much indication, and the scene at the end of the film version with Ciaran Hinds standing on deck and sweeping the horizon (not too much of it really because the ship was still in dock) whilst Anne gazed adoringly at his brass telescope, was just a bit too "Hollywood" for me. The Rupert Penry Jones version of buying a house, was much more acceptable. Unlike a modern writer with the benefit of historical events, Jane Austen could not know if there would be further war or whether Frederick would be called to the flag in such an event, and if the delicate Anne would cope with the rigours of a life before the mast. It is interesting to speculate but, unfortuantely specualtion is all we have.