[LMB] Age at first marriage

[Dorian E. Gray]

Pete said...
>
> 200 years ago, Jane Austen seems not to have believed that wide 
> differences in age were all that bad, at all.  In _Sense and Sensibility_, 
> Marianne is 17 and Col. brandon is 35 when they meet, and they marry when 
> she is 19 (and he must, thereby, be 37?).

True, and this kind of age difference is preserved in many of Georgette 
Heyer's romances.  I think the biggest age gap is between Avon and Leonie 
(20 years), but frequently the heroes are in their early 30s while the 
heroines are 20-ish.  Off-hand, I can't think of a main-characters couple 
who are around the same age in her books, though often the minor-character 
romances are between couples closer in age - and often those are depicted as 
being "too young to know their own minds".

Until the sky falls on our heads...

Dorian.
--
Dorian E. Gray
israfel at eircom.net
http://dorianegray.livejournal.com

"Fashion exists for women with no taste, etiquette for people with no 
breeding."
- Queen Marie of Romania