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In Persuasion , mourning and renewal are not separate. Jane Austen (1775–1817) finished this novel during her own last illness and it has a quality of reflection all its own. Anne Elliot, living quietly in the country, has lost people she loves, and a chance at love, but as she moves once again into a broader world a world of friendship, imagination, and of the wide seas toward the end of the Napoleonic Wars life begins for her for a second time. This April, when we all will be living with losses, and, we hope, imagining entering the world again, come read the Austen novel in which, Virginia Woolf said, “we also feel that [Austen] is trying to do something that she has never yet attempted.” In her creation, Anne Elliot, a careful reader and rereader, Austen offers a friend and companion to her own readers, the ones she imagined, us. ....
The Untold Truth Of The Women Who Ruled Ancient Egypt By Sarah Crocker/Jan. 28, 2021 4:40 pm EDT When considering the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, who do you imagine? Probably a man, right? He s wearing a crown of some sort, sporting some nice eyeliner, and generally lording it over everyone as a god on Earth. But, what about the goddesses? Turns out, there were a fair number of women who ruled over ancient Egypt, from its very beginnings to the final dynastic pharaoh on the throne at the time of the Roman takeover. That may be in part because, compared to other societies at the time, ancient Egyptian women were pretty liberated. According to the University of Chicago Libraries, they could enter into contracts, own property, initiate divorces, and generally operate like a responsible, independent adult. Far better than, say, ancient Greek society, which often treated women as baby-rearing machines and little else (via Ancient History Encyclopedia). ....