Jane Austen Wayyyyyyy Ahead of Her Time
In the Janeites yahoogroup during the past two days, I’ve been engaged in a thread with Christy Somerand Nancy Mayer, which arose outof our discussing the behavior of Mr. Bennet in the beginning of...
View ArticleMATRiMONY is a MATteR of MONeY
Some lucky fallout from my recent frivolous investigations into literary puns is that, by accident, I came across another literary pun that does actually go to the heart of Jane Austen's fictions--and...
View ArticleSeizing the Mantel and Seizing the Pen
Diana (Birchall, not the ghost of the late Princess of Wales!) wrote the following in Janeites, in regard to the recent article by Booker Prize winner Hilary...
View ArticleP.S re Hilary Mantel & Duchess Kate
In response to my first post about Hilary Mantel's controversial recent article about Duchess Kate and the Royal Family, my friend Diana Birchall wrote: "You're probably right, Arnie, it was...
View ArticleHilary Mantel Wields Jane Austen's Quill Pen
Near the end of the first of my two recent posts about Hilary Mantel's controversial article about Kate Middleton and the other British...
View ArticleJane Austen’s “Carpet” Sharade on James 1st & Cleland’s “carpet road” passage...
In Janeites on Sunday, Nancy Mayer wrote the following, attempting to rebut my and others's claims that Jane Austen's Sharade on James I……“His Majesty was of that amiable disposition which inclines to...
View ArticleJane Austen’s “Carpet” Sharade on James 1st & Cleland’s “carpet road” passage...
In my previous post on this topic…http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2013/02/jane-austens-carpet-sharade-on-james.html….I made the case for the 15-year old Jane Austen’s “Carpet” Sharade as a...
View ArticleJane Austen’s “Carpet” Sharade on James 1st & Cleland’s “carpet road” passage...
In Part Two of this series of three posts about the above-titled topic….http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2013/02/jane-austens-carpet-sharade-on-james_27.html….I began to answer the question...
View ArticleWhich are the most erotic passages in Jane Austen's Novels?
I have been posting the past week about the veiled allusions to Cleland's Fanny Hill that I see in Jane Austen's writings, and now a question has occurred to me, which I do not recall being discussed...
View ArticleThe room in which the ladies sat was backwards" : A Room of Charlotte’s Own
During the recent thread I started about allusions to Fanny Hill in Jane Austen’s writing, it was suggested that Jill Heydt-Stevenson’s Unbecoming Conjunctionsis sensationalistic, that it seeks out the...
View ArticleMary Bennet & Jane Austen, Students of Thorough-Bass & Human Nature
An interesting thread of discussion has developed in Janeites, arising out of a report of a recent piano recital at which music actually played by Jane Austen was performed and discussed, and then the...
View Article"A woman must have a THOROUGH knowledge of MUSIC..."
Following up on my last post about Mary Bennet and Jane Austen as students of thorough-bass and human...
View ArticleJane Austen's Letter 96 (6 November 1813): "They came & they sat...and then...
In Janeites and Austen-L, during our endless group read of JA’s letters (we have been at it for over 2 years, and now have just about a year to go), Diana Birchall commented about the following...
View ArticleMiss Bates the Delphic Oracle AND Greek Chorus of Highbury
In Janeites and Austen L yesterday, I asked for help in understanding the meaning of the following sentence in Chapter 44 of Emma: "Miss Bates would hardly give Emma time to say how perfectly new this...
View ArticleThe Riveting Spectacle of Jane Austen & Joseph Addison in a Witty Clinch
My eye was caught this morning by a curious resonance of expression between the following two passages written about 80years apart: Joseph Addison on James the First in his 4th Paper on Wit, published...
View ArticleThe Riveting Spectacle of Jane Austen & Joseph Addison in a Clinching CONUNDRUM
This post is in followup to my several posts yesterday in which I claimed that Jane Austen, both in her youthful History of England, and also in Emma, covertly but strongly alluded to the following...
View ArticleAusten as Sermoniser...or Playwright
In Austen-L this morning, Anielka Briggs wrote (in relevant part): "I contend Austen’s moralising is the clever, gentle and entertaining writing of a Church of England clergyman’s child in the...
View ArticleSir Walter's Subtle Wit
Sir Walter Elliot is generally considered one of the duller elves among the range of Austen characters, for good reason, it would seem. Not only is he in the running for Most Narcissistic Character (of...
View ArticleSir Walter’s Wit, Yellowed Admirals and…..Conchs and Conchology!
In response to my immediately preceding post about Sir Walter's Subtle Wit, Anielka Briggs wrote the following in Austen-L: "Well that would have been quite clever. Except for one critical error....
View ArticleKitty's Indiscreet Coughing: She's Just Following Advice
I've posted twice before about Kitty Bennet's coughing in the opening scene of Pride & Prejudice, most recently...
View Article