tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685533049738406832.post4662157168197997143..comments2024-03-27T09:05:59.436-07:00Comments on Jane Austen and Other Writers: May Memories: First Encounters with Jane Austen and why we still read her: Part IIIDianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685533049738406832.post-88645642167419782342016-05-22T10:26:13.092-07:002016-05-22T10:26:13.092-07:00Wonderful quote! Thank you for your comments and t...Wonderful quote! Thank you for your comments and the opportunity to post on Austen.epigeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07702410355855897192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685533049738406832.post-55613901648983139642016-05-22T10:24:45.932-07:002016-05-22T10:24:45.932-07:00I think it important to remember that both James a...I think it important to remember that both James and Woolf were assessing Austen as the sheltered lady that JEAL wanted to promote. Similarly, in constructing himself as "the master," James too would hesitate to acknowledge his debt.epigeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07702410355855897192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685533049738406832.post-54118814119694022372016-05-16T17:27:24.177-07:002016-05-16T17:27:24.177-07:00Elaine,
Your comments on James and Austen brought ...Elaine,<br />Your comments on James and Austen brought to mind the Kipling quote from "The Janeites:"" She did leave lawful issue in the shape o' one son; an' 'is name was 'Enery James.” So true. Both authors have attracted me because of those undercurrents you mention, that sense of something not quite perceptible dancing beneath the surface. When I was younger, I couldn't see it as the queer subtext in James, but now that jumps off the page at me. I was also a youthful Nancy Drew fan and wonder if that connects us to Northanger Abbey, because what is Catherine looking for if not a mystery? I agree too about Captain Tilney. :)Dianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685533049738406832.post-83553148783596548792016-05-16T09:18:34.094-07:002016-05-16T09:18:34.094-07:00I'm glad I had no idea what other people thoug...I'm glad I had no idea what other people thought of Austen (except my father who talked of her bitter ironies) until I was in college classroom at age 18 and was astonished to hear most of the other students say of Sense and Sensibility that it was "boring." Of course a moment later I realized they were not true reading people at all. My daughter, Isobel, had the same experience after she read and loved Elizabeth Bowen's Last September, gave a talk on it, and was astonished to be told by a mostly astonished audience that they had never seen any sex in the book and had wondered where was the evidence of a revolution. Elaine is not the first person to tell me that when a teenager she didn't read the books as it just wasn't done or were framed as by a repressed spinster. There were no films for me to watch until a decade later, and I didn't watch them until a decade after that (mid-1980s re-runs of BBC films on PBS). My first revelation from an outside source on how to read Austen was Mary Lascelles's Jane Austen and Her Art, which was recommended to me by the professor in that first class. It is still one of the best close readings of how Austen's style is central to the richness of her meanings. It's probably one of the oldest books of criticism in my now vast library. I agree with Henry James's voiced assessment of her as partly unconscious of the depths she is bringing out (from revision, as Woolf suggested).Ellenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14979942382683140531noreply@blogger.com