Friday, July 26, 2013

Problem with the Janie

My email account is crammed with excitement since the announcement that Jane Austen is to appear on the British 10-pound note, already referred to as the Janie.  And a protest is already being organized about the quotation scheduled to appear below her portrait.  Yes, it’s a fine sentiment.  Yes, Our Author did write it.  BUT –
It’s the same problem I faced as I began to gather material for my little Austen gift book.
There’s no point in quoting Jane Austen unless the reader is alerted about who spoke those words -- a deceiver, a heroine, a rattlebrain, or perhaps the narrator herself – and even then, her tongue is often quietly in cheek. I ended up writing a short note for almost every quotation. With "It is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life” 
I felt the need to explain that it came from
Charlotte, seriously unmarried at twenty-seven, who later accepted – and nicely managed -- the odious Mr. Collins.” And the banknote? The quotation reads:
"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" Yes, it comes from Pride and Prejudice. Where it is spoken by two-faced Caroline Bingley, who obviously cares nothing for reading and is simply angling for attention from aloof millionaire Fitzwilliam Darcy.
I could have warned the Bank of England.

 

3 comments:

  1. I know the feeling. I've got a doormat in my vestibule that bears the line "Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort." The mat was a gift from a friend; JA did indeed write the line; I do need a mat in my untidy vestibule; and I'm a homebody myself--but the line is spoken by the egregious Mrs. Elton in Emma, who would just as soon stay at home as learn differential calculus. Sigh.

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  2. You are so right! How could they do that?

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