What strange creatures brothers are! You would not write to each other but upon the most urgent necessity in the world, and when obliged to take up the pen to say that such a horse is ill, or such a relation dead, it is done in the fewest possible words. You have but one style among you. – Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park
Jane Austen has often been accused of writing about topics she scarcely knows about (marriage) and ignoring important current events (the war), and of being rather emotionless (Charlotte Bronte.) Regardless of which side critics choose to sit on the Jane bashing/adoration bandwagon, none can deny that Jane Austen knows about brothers like Carrie Bradshaw knows about shoes.
The statement made by Mary Crawford to Edmund Bertrum rings particularly true about most men, especially those of the old school. Men tend to be direct and non-descriptive when relating important events, exasperating their female acquaintances and providing fodder for comedians. As a close male friend of mine said about his dearth of correspondence by email, “If I have nothing new to say, why write at all?” Why write, indeed. Women build close relationships through words; men tend to build them through action; and seldom the twain shall meet.
Here’s a fun site: It teaches a man how to write a romantic letter step by step. Ah, Jane, if only you were still around!
Image from Project Gutenberg, Mince Pie by Christopher Darlington Morley, 1919
Yes, men are just the fact. My husband is a “just the facts”, except when he is telling a story!