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.
Good on ya!
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right! How could they do that?
ReplyDelete