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Thanks! -- Arnie Perlstein, Portland, OR

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Jane Austen without the "boring bits"

In a review of a new biography of Georgette Heyer....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/28/georgette-heyer-jennifer-kloester-review?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9037&#start-of-comments

the reviewer took this gratuitous swipe at Jane Austen:

"[Heyer] is like Jane Austen but without the boring bits, of which there are more than most of us care to remember."

Kathryn Hughes reveals, by the above comment, that she does not understand the (extremely rich) significance of the "boring bits" in Jane Austen's novels. What if the love stories in Austen's novels are only the easily accessible layer, but there is a secondary layer as well, and the "boring bits" are Hansel & Gretelian "bread crumbs" pointing the way to what mattered to Jane Austen the most?:

http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2011/01/jane-austens-anamorphism.html

http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2011/10/jane-austens-conscious-fictional.html

http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2011/10/whole-world-is-in-conspiracy-to-enrich.html

Cheers, ARNIE

P.S.: .and this one may hold special interest....

http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2011/10/two-more-heretofore-unperceived-related.html

...especially the following comments at the end of said blog post:

"First, in my talk about Jane Fairfax...I always point out the well recognized slang meaning of "governess" in Jane Austen's day was _”prostitute”_ (a slang meaning connected to Emma no less than 20 years ago)! And so I argue that Jane Fairfax, in code, was passionately proclaiming her resistance to being forced into prostitution by the “friend” who wished to place her there—Mrs. Elton! "

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