I am going to read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Don’t write about its story on this forum, please.
I gave up the book to read, but if you are going to read it, I shall try it again. 
Could you tell me about the story, please.
Which story? About the book or my giving up? I can’t tell the story of the book because I didn’t finish reading it. It was just difficult to understand. I felt the words and expressions used in the book were quite peculiar. I needed more time to get used to them, but I had no patience at that time.
I proclaimed that I was going to read Mansfield Park in this thread, and began reading the novel several minutes ago. I did not have any knowledge about it, and found that it is not easy to read. I found several words that I am not familiar with, such as “baronet’s lady”, “equitable claim”, and “scruple” on the first page. (Is Baronet related to Baron? Does equitable mean equal? What does scruple mean? ) I am at a loss. I wonder if I should consult dictionaries or not. Should I accept the first and second principles of TADOKU. For the time being, I don’t want to accept the third principle because I think that Chapter n+1 is always easier than Chapter n in any case.
What are the TADOKU ? It seems to be more rare than the equitable claim. At least from the perspective of my Babylon -
“She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage.”(Mansfield Park)
Could someone rephrase the following part in the sentences quoted above?
“and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria”
Is this part easy to understand for native speakers of English?
TADOKU(多読) literally means “a lot of reading.”
A careful rephrasing: “and those among their acquaintances who thought that Miss Ward and Miss Frances were as handsome as Miss Maria” did not hesitate to say that they would also marry (nearly as) well. This doesn’t change the structure of the sentence all that much.
A radical rewrite “there were some people who thought that M.W. and M.F. were as beautiful and Maria was”.
I very much hope that the sentence is easy to understand for native speakers, it is for me.
SanneT,
Thank you very much. You are my great teacher!
Does “such” in “such … as …” mean “(such) people?”
Yes, those people among their acquaintance…
SanneT,
Thank you for your reply. I wonder if the expression "such of … as thought … " can be used in our writing.
SanneT,
Thank you for your reply. I wonder if the expression "such of … as thought … " can be used in our writing.
Strange! “500 Server error” and the same two posts. The devil did not made me do it.
Strange! “500 Server error” and the same two posts. The devil did not made me do it.
Who is making work for idle hands? I would not use the expression in everyday language, it is very formal and almost certainly obsolete in the spoken language. You could use something like “certain people, such as my neighbours, strongly object to having a telephone mast put up in our street.” or similar constructions. The “as thought” part is no longer in active use and I wouldn’t use it in writing.