Alrighty then. I've got my Norton Critical (came in yesterday) so I'm ready to go!
Melissa W. I read and knit and dance. Compulsively feel yarn. Consume books. Darn tights. Drink too much caffiene. All that good stuff. balletbookworm.blogspot.com
I already have the Penguin Classics edition so shall be using that. It has an Introduction by Dr Kathryn Sutherland - who does the Intro for the B&N Penguin edition? Dr Sutherland is assembling an electronic database of women's literature and has also written Jane Austen's Textual Lives : from Aeschylus to Bollywood 'the most important scholarly work on Austen written to date':-
Working in a bookstore does have its advantages - especially when you find a bargain book! I picked up a reprint of GE Mitton's Jane Austen and Her Times, 1775-1817, first printed in 1905. It's pretty interesting to flick through Austen criticism from 100 years ago. The most interesting so far is his point that if there weren't any illustrated editions, then the readers' would place the characters in Victorian or "modern" dress. Which is true - JA never really does describe or define everyday items or events. The reader is assumed to know what dresses the Bennet girls were wearing or what steps are in a quadrille.
Quite different from some of today's writing where the reader is given a character description right down to the pocket lint!
Melissa W. I read and knit and dance. Compulsively feel yarn. Consume books. Darn tights. Drink too much caffiene. All that good stuff. balletbookworm.blogspot.com
pedsphleb wrote: JA never really does describe or define everyday items or events. The reader is assumed to know what dresses the Bennet girls were wearing or what steps are in a quadrille.
It's the same with social code etc. JA assumes we know what is appropriate in the society. In that sense she wrote for her contemporaries. And it is not so strange, chick lit is not concerned with explaining everything to readers in i.e. 2237.
pedsphleb wrote: I picked up a reprint of GE Mitton's Jane Austen and Her Times, 1775-1817, first printed in 1905. It's pretty interesting to flick through Austen criticism from 100 years ago. The most interesting so far is his point that if there weren't any illustrated editions, then the readers' would place the characters in Victorian or "modern" dress.
I just realized that my chapters are divided into two volumes? I am assuming the number of chapters are the same and only the number for each volume is different - jd
jd wrote: I just realized that my chapters are divided into two volumes? I am assuming the number of chapters are the same and only the number for each volume is different - jd
Fellow readers, I'm marking this thread as "Read-Only" to keep threads for our discussion of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, which ended on May 11, 2007, separate from threads for our current selection: please visit the Literature by Women board to find out what we're reading now!
