Talk:Jane Austen
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"It should be noted, however, that almost every scene in her novels features women, purportedly because she did not know how men spoke when not in the presence of women." How is any woman supposed to know how to men behave when they are alone? I understand that this is meant to suppose that she in fact didn't know men very well and only had small talk with them, but this sentence is rather strange.--Martewa 18:57, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Do we have permission to use this server's image of Jane? --A Gentleman.
I would say so. At least under U.S. law, images before 1923 are public domain--a criterion that Cassandra's drawing of Jane can definitely meet. RivGuySC 03:25, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)
isn't one of the shorter works listed an unfinished novel? -- Tarquin
yes, both The Watsons and Sanditon were unfinished. She was working on Sanditon just before she died. The Watsons was an earleir work that she never finished. It has been suggested that this was because she realised that she had set her protagonists in too low a social stratum to make a credible "good marriage" Ping 07:42 Mar 2, 2003 (UTC)
What is "edenic garden literature?" Is it a genre in which Austen's novels figure? It's a new one on me, so it might bear some explanation, or even a separate article. -- IHCOYC 18:50 19 May 2003 (UTC)
I don't know either, the obvious interpretation doesn't make sense. Come to that the rest of that sentence needs explanation. Jane Austen was very careful with her facts, I have never spotted a mistake like that. Anyway a lot of country houses had "Successiion Houses" designed to produce fruit out of season. Ping 10:41 20 May 2003 (UTC)
According to Google, the entire Internet is ignorant of the phrase "edenic garden literature," except for the Wikipedia page on Jane Austen. The point about fruits and vegetables seems a slight matter in any case; no doubt Austen paid more attention to husbands than husbandry. -- IHCOYC 13:38 20 May 2003 (UTC)
I suspect it is a snide comment, in the garden of eden and similar places all fruits are always available, perfectly ripe, all the time. Should one of us edit the article?Ping 09:38 21 May 2003 (UTC)
The history suggests that it was meant to be a criticism of Austen's novels. I've removed the Garden of Eden and added my own opinion, which I hope is more to the point. --- IHCOYC 14:43 21 May 2003 (UTC)
I like your edit, much more to the point; I added a comment to try and put it into a modern contextPing 08:45 22 May 2003 (UTC)
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The Canon?
Although there is always going to be some dispute about the canon, I think Austen is one of those who is often left out, because of the fairly narrow scope of her writing (middle class Englishwomen on the marriage market), and its relevance is not considered by everyone to be universal.
picture of JA
The image shown is not the original by Cassandra. It is an 'embellished' version of Cassandra's drawing.
Pseudonyms
I've got a question. I've read that pre 20th century women writers, given the temper of the times, pretty much had to adopt a male pseudonym. How did Jane Austen avoid this? (Duf Davis)
I have posted my answer to this on Duf's homepage.
Mitzy 18:38, 15 May 2005 (UTC)
Mitzy - Thanks for the info. It goes to show how easy it is to pick up on someone else's assumption and be led astray.
Teenage "Jane Austen portrait" dubious last time I heard
Theo, you've put in a claim that a painting "traditionally held to be of Jane as a teenager, is now increasingly considered authentic by authorities". Could you supply the source for that, please? The last time I heard, the authorities were rather making fun of the claim. There was a big discussion of this painting in the TLS a few years ago, which I may or may not find the time to chase down, where art historians declared the tradition to be not only bogus but crackpot, as far as I remember, and the painting to be either much older or much newer than JA's teenage period. But there could well be new information in, I'm no expert. Bishonen|Talk 16:14, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
- Not guilty, m'lud. That claim was added by User:206.72.65.101 on January 31 2005 in this edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jane_Austen&oldid=9940496). I assume that this refers to the Rice portrait. The Jane Austen Society rejected the authenticity of this on costume grounds. Richard James Wheeler, The Rice Portrait of Jane Austen (Westerham: Codex, 1996) argues for its authenticity. Or are you thinking of the painting by James Stanier Clarke? For that see Daily Telegraph March 4 1995. Here is a POV site (http://www.artworksgallery.co.uk/book.html) about it. I am unaware of any developments in these stories. --Theo (Talk) 23:01, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)