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Elizabeth¡¯s Inaction

 

Beginning with Elizabeth Bennet¡¯s stroll with Colonel Fitzwilliam, and then
continuing during Darcy¡¯s botched first proposal, and then in his letter to
Elizabeth, Elizabeth Bennet comes to learn that Bingley has been kept in
the dark by Miss Bingley and Darcy since leaving Meryton about Jane¡¯s
continuing interest in him, which is what brought Jane to London a few
months after he left.



Elizabeth is thus uniquely situated by Chapter 36 in her knowledge that
Bingley may still be romantically interested in Jane, and she already knew
all along that Jane was definitely still romantically interested in
Bingley. It¡¯s an old romantic trope, the two lovers who each don¡¯t realize
that the other is still in love with them.



I suggest that once Elizabeth has this unique knowledge (the only other
character who also knows is Darcy, but he has made it clear, arrogantly,
that he stands by his actions to keep Bingley in the dark about Jane), she
does absolutely nothing to try to somehow let each of the lovebirds know
about the other, which might cause Bingley to wake up and (as Darcy puts it
in the 1996 miniseries, ¡°go to it¡±). When she does think about telling
Jane, she decides that it would only make Jane even sadder, since, so her
thinking seems to go, it would be a fool¡¯s errand, it would not bring
Bingley back.



I advocate for Elizabeth to persuade her father to covertly seek out
Bingley in London, and inform Bingley of this crucial fact that Jane still
loves him. I am not suggesting that Elizabeth tell Jane directly, not
unless and until her father was successful.



Two counterarguments to mine come to mind:



FIRST:

Mr. Bennet is indolent, not a responsible diligent father, so even if
Elizabeth asked, he would refuse to intervene. But, given the stakes for
Jane, shouldn't Elizabeth give it a try with him anyway, what does she have
to lose? It would be for Jane¡¯s sake, so it would be the generous thing for
Elizabeth to do. But this possibility never even occurs to Elizabeth. Also,

in Chapter 41, Elizabeth does try to get her father to stop Lydia and Kitty
from going to Brighton. But she doesn¡¯t ask him to do something he already
did, in a different way, at the beginning of the novel, which is to go on a
secret romantic mission to Bingley!



And¡­. last but not least, Elizabeth doesn¡¯t even think the thought of
asking her father, it never even occurs to her. Her mind is totally
occupied, I would suggest, with increasingly obsessive thoughts and regrets
about Darcy, so it appears there¡¯s no room for thoughts about Jane.



Even when she is at Pemberley with her aunt and uncle, and Darcy¡¯s being so
nice to them and to her ¨C it never occurs to her even then that she might
ask him to reconsider about Jane and Bingley. No, that would risk him
getting angry at her, and sending her on her way home.



SECOND: I actually made up a hypothetical letter that Mr. Bennet could
arrange to have delivered to Bingley in London without being detected by
either Caroline Bingley or Darcy. The letter doesn¡¯t threaten Bingley, it
doesn¡¯t try to make him feel guilty, it recognizes the delicacy of the
situation, and it makes Mr. Bennet¡¯s good intentions perfectly clear, and
gives Bingley an easy out if he is not interested, for any reason, in
restarting with Jane.



Would that be ¡°improper¡± for Mr. Bennet to write such a letter? But why
would it be improper for a respectable gentleman like Mr. Bennet if he
wrote a carefully worded, non-threatening letter of information to another
gentleman, about a matter of great personal interest to both of them, and
to the woman they both share affection for ¨C Jane? Why would that be more
improper than Mr. Bennet going over to Netherfield at the beginning of the
novel to introduce Bingley to the Bennet family and all his daughters,
which everyone thought was a great move by him.



More important, though, this got me thinking deeply about the distinction
between ¡°propriety¡± and ¡°morality¡±. Even if hypothetically, someone could
argue that it was not normal Regency Era decorum for Mr. Bennet to
intervene in this way, I would think that everyone would agree that this
was a very moral thing for Mr. Bennet to do. It would be a mission of
mercy, a mission of love, with pure motives and a possibility it could lead
to the righting of a very bad wrong ¨C two people who love each other having
been separated for no good reason at all.



I don't believe Jane Austen valued propriety and protocol over true love.
Isn't such propriety what Austen ridicules strongly when Mr. Bennet reacts
to Mr. Collins¡¯s letter:

¡°I must not, however, neglect the duties of my station, or refrain from
declaring my amazement, at hearing that you received the young couple into
your house as soon as they were married. It was an encouragement of vice;
and had I been the rector of Longbourn, I should very strenuously have
opposed it. You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian, but never
to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your
hearing.¡¯ That is his notion of Christian forgiveness!¡±



Mr. Bennet would, I conclude, find a mission to Bingley to be a mission of
charity and generosity. He would risk looking improper, out of love for his
daughter Jane.



What do you all think, about any of the above?



ARNIE


Re: Two new family members

 

They are adorable. You will have so much fun with them. As you will also
come to remember, young kittens /cats can be terrors as well. Have them
listen to Austen audible books.
Nancy


On Fri, Oct 11, 2024 at 6:47?PM Ellen Moody via groups.io <ellen.moody=
[email protected]> wrote:

2 new family members: Fiona, white & grey spots; sister Elinor
(Dashwood), Ellie-cat, grey & white, same litter; females born early
August. In cat bed; with foster mom; thru carrier mesh; in cat stack
w/holes for climbing in and out in Izzy's room. Born early 8/2024.
Thou mett'st w/things dying (beloved Ian & Clary), I w/things newborn
(Winter'sTale) Callooh callay she chortled in her joy

Ellen






Two new family members

 

2 new family members: Fiona, white & grey spots; sister Elinor
(Dashwood), Ellie-cat, grey & white, same litter; females born early
August. In cat bed; with foster mom; thru carrier mesh; in cat stack
w/holes for climbing in and out in Izzy's room. Born early 8/2024.
Thou mett'st w/things dying (beloved Ian & Clary), I w/things newborn
(Winter'sTale) Callooh callay she chortled in her joy

Ellen


Ann Radcliffe: how central, important, intelligent & yet written out of the canon

 

Obviously, Nancy, you disagree with the author of that article, and even
more so with me. His rant may have been against imagining English husbands
murdering or confining their wives - but I say it was also,
ventriloquistically, Jane Austen's rant about what English husbands did
every to their wives, which was just as bad (especially the "confining"
part).


ARNIE

On Sun, Oct 6, 2024 at 1:28?PM Nancy Mayer via groups.io <regencyresearcher=
[email protected]> wrote:

Henry's rant wasn't about marriage. It was about riots. It was written
while the Gordon Anti-Papist riots were still remembered by older people.
I do not find women isolated in spooky castles very threatening even
considering the times, It fails in such symbolism for me. Much more
pertinent are some of the court cases where a wife is trying to separate
from her husband because of his cruelty, or male employers and sometimes
their male servants attack female servants. Maria or the Wrongs of Women
is much more frightening.
Nancy

On Sun, Oct 6, 2024 at 1:37?PM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

Ellen,

This is scholarly writing about literature that is on a much higher
standard than I typically see in this sort of mainstream media article
about Austen (or Austen-related)

The best part of Ferguson's article for me is this section:

"The heroines are often imprisoned in remote, atmospheric locations where
supernatural events appear to take place. ¡°That gives us a real sense of
terror,¡± said Wright. ¡°It¡¯s quite psychological, before psychology was
invented. She uses the image of the decayed castle or crumbling convent
to
explore the precarious and outmoded issue of marriage laws in England,
where coverture meant a woman¡¯s legal identity and her property
effectively
disappeared when she married. So she shows young women in distress, in
really exciting, action-packed narratives, with the aim of showing the
precarious nature of a young female¡¯s existence who has no protection in
²õ´Ç³¦¾±±ð³Ù²â.¡±

By empowering her heroines with the strength and resilience they need to
escape and marry the men they choose, Radcliffe is ¡°very staunchly¡±
showing
that women can successfully resist domination, Wright said.

¡°There is a sense of Radcliffe critiquing patriarchy and men who think
they
can dictate to women precisely what we should do and what we should give
to
them in marriage. So in many ways it is feminist literature, on a par
with
what Mary Wollstonecraft was arguing in *A Vindication of the Rights of
Women
<

*
.¡±

At one point, a Radcliffe villain tells his victim: ¡°You speak like a
heroine, let us see if you can suffer like one.¡±

Wright added: ¡°There¡¯s always a happy ending and a good resolution. But
there¡¯s a sense of a heroine being able to manoeuvre that resolution.¡±

END QUOTE FROM FERGUSON ARTICLE

However, even Ferguson fails to take the final step in her chain of
logic,
which is that it's not just some "men who think they can dictate to
women"
- that domination was baked into the patriarchal system of marriage - and
the central, most insidious part of that domination was the wife's lack
of
control in "normal" marriage over her own body - hence serial pregnancy
and
death in childbirth as "normal".

As I've said 1000 times, Henry Tilney's rant about what couldn't happen
in
a Christian nation is the epicenter of Jane Austen's critique of marriage
in Northanger Abbey - YES IT COULD, AND DID, HAPPEN, all the time, and
yet,
no clergyman, politician, or male public intellectual was railing against
this plague.

Catherine's theories about General Tilney may have been wrong in
specifics,
but she was spot-on in essentials - and Jane Austen pretty much says
that,
in code, at the end of the novel.


ARNIE


Re: Ann Radcliffe: how central, important, intelligent & yet written out of the canon

 

Henry's rant wasn't about marriage. It was about riots. It was written
while the Gordon Anti-Papist riots were still remembered by older people.
I do not find women isolated in spooky castles very threatening even
considering the times, It fails in such symbolism for me. Much more
pertinent are some of the court cases where a wife is trying to separate
from her husband because of his cruelty, or male employers and sometimes
their male servants attack female servants. Maria or the Wrongs of Women
is much more frightening.
Nancy

On Sun, Oct 6, 2024 at 1:37?PM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

Ellen,

This is scholarly writing about literature that is on a much higher
standard than I typically see in this sort of mainstream media article
about Austen (or Austen-related)

The best part of Ferguson's article for me is this section:

"The heroines are often imprisoned in remote, atmospheric locations where
supernatural events appear to take place. ¡°That gives us a real sense of
terror,¡± said Wright. ¡°It¡¯s quite psychological, before psychology was
invented. She uses the image of the decayed castle or crumbling convent to
explore the precarious and outmoded issue of marriage laws in England,
where coverture meant a woman¡¯s legal identity and her property effectively
disappeared when she married. So she shows young women in distress, in
really exciting, action-packed narratives, with the aim of showing the
precarious nature of a young female¡¯s existence who has no protection in
²õ´Ç³¦¾±±ð³Ù²â.¡±

By empowering her heroines with the strength and resilience they need to
escape and marry the men they choose, Radcliffe is ¡°very staunchly¡± showing
that women can successfully resist domination, Wright said.

¡°There is a sense of Radcliffe critiquing patriarchy and men who think they
can dictate to women precisely what we should do and what we should give to
them in marriage. So in many ways it is feminist literature, on a par with
what Mary Wollstonecraft was arguing in *A Vindication of the Rights of
Women
<

*
.¡±

At one point, a Radcliffe villain tells his victim: ¡°You speak like a
heroine, let us see if you can suffer like one.¡±

Wright added: ¡°There¡¯s always a happy ending and a good resolution. But
there¡¯s a sense of a heroine being able to manoeuvre that resolution.¡±

END QUOTE FROM FERGUSON ARTICLE

However, even Ferguson fails to take the final step in her chain of logic,
which is that it's not just some "men who think they can dictate to women"
- that domination was baked into the patriarchal system of marriage - and
the central, most insidious part of that domination was the wife's lack of
control in "normal" marriage over her own body - hence serial pregnancy and
death in childbirth as "normal".

As I've said 1000 times, Henry Tilney's rant about what couldn't happen in
a Christian nation is the epicenter of Jane Austen's critique of marriage
in Northanger Abbey - YES IT COULD, AND DID, HAPPEN, all the time, and yet,
no clergyman, politician, or male public intellectual was railing against
this plague.

Catherine's theories about General Tilney may have been wrong in specifics,
but she was spot-on in essentials - and Jane Austen pretty much says that,
in code, at the end of the novel.


ARNIE






Ann Radcliffe: how central, important, intelligent & yet written out of the canon

 

Ellen,

This is scholarly writing about literature that is on a much higher
standard than I typically see in this sort of mainstream media article
about Austen (or Austen-related)

The best part of Ferguson's article for me is this section:

"The heroines are often imprisoned in remote, atmospheric locations where
supernatural events appear to take place. ¡°That gives us a real sense of
terror,¡± said Wright. ¡°It¡¯s quite psychological, before psychology was
invented. She uses the image of the decayed castle or crumbling convent to
explore the precarious and outmoded issue of marriage laws in England,
where coverture meant a woman¡¯s legal identity and her property effectively
disappeared when she married. So she shows young women in distress, in
really exciting, action-packed narratives, with the aim of showing the
precarious nature of a young female¡¯s existence who has no protection in
²õ´Ç³¦¾±±ð³Ù²â.¡±

By empowering her heroines with the strength and resilience they need to
escape and marry the men they choose, Radcliffe is ¡°very staunchly¡± showing
that women can successfully resist domination, Wright said.

¡°There is a sense of Radcliffe critiquing patriarchy and men who think they
can dictate to women precisely what we should do and what we should give to
them in marriage. So in many ways it is feminist literature, on a par with
what Mary Wollstonecraft was arguing in *A Vindication of the Rights of
Women
<>*
.¡±

At one point, a Radcliffe villain tells his victim: ¡°You speak like a
heroine, let us see if you can suffer like one.¡±

Wright added: ¡°There¡¯s always a happy ending and a good resolution. But
there¡¯s a sense of a heroine being able to manoeuvre that resolution.¡±

END QUOTE FROM FERGUSON ARTICLE

However, even Ferguson fails to take the final step in her chain of logic,
which is that it's not just some "men who think they can dictate to women"
- that domination was baked into the patriarchal system of marriage - and
the central, most insidious part of that domination was the wife's lack of
control in "normal" marriage over her own body - hence serial pregnancy and
death in childbirth as "normal".

As I've said 1000 times, Henry Tilney's rant about what couldn't happen in
a Christian nation is the epicenter of Jane Austen's critique of marriage
in Northanger Abbey - YES IT COULD, AND DID, HAPPEN, all the time, and yet,
no clergyman, politician, or male public intellectual was railing against
this plague.

Catherine's theories about General Tilney may have been wrong in specifics,
but she was spot-on in essentials - and Jane Austen pretty much says that,
in code, at the end of the novel.


ARNIE


Women's books, writing, literature

 

Ellen,

You and I have disagreed about a thousand things over nearly 25 years, but
on this point, we are in 100% agreement - I've cited her line a hundred
times or more about hating the Prince Regent because he treated his wife so
abominably for so long.

I have been a board member of Advance Gender Equity (AGE) for nearly 8
years. Read about the great work that AGE's young diverse team is doing
here in Portland:



Those of you reading this post who admire AGE's mission, please donate!

ARNIE


On Sun, Oct 6, 2024 at 8:58?AM Ellen Moody via groups.io <ellen.moody=
[email protected]> wrote:

I have to say that after all for me at this point in my life while I
can discover new genres or (to me) male authors I like for real, my
driving desire and interest is to read books & essays by women.

I remain amazed how I discover so many women seem indifferent to this
important gender divide. I see those who care on the few places
dedicated to some form of women's art, but outside that, no. They look
surprised when I say most of the time I prefer women's writing. They
seem not to realize the central messages or interpretations found in
male books are male centered, male aesthetics. It's denied; maybe not
on the level of the sentence or paragraph or chapter but on the level
of a whole work of art. Many women do try hard to write versions of
male books and especially male movies (There's money in that.) Selling
themselves for centuries but now one does not have to.

In the US men are trying to make pregnancy compulsory, but having made
a miscarriage or anything going wrong in pregnancy, now life
threatening, the cruelty and drive to dominate women of many is
backfiring ...

I'm with Austen on Queen Caroline: she was on her side because she was a
woman

Ellen



Women's books, writing, literature

 

I have to say that after all for me at this point in my life while I
can discover new genres or (to me) male authors I like for real, my
driving desire and interest is to read books & essays by women.

I remain amazed how I discover so many women seem indifferent to this
important gender divide. I see those who care on the few places
dedicated to some form of women's art, but outside that, no. They look
surprised when I say most of the time I prefer women's writing. They
seem not to realize the central messages or interpretations found in
male books are male centered, male aesthetics. It's denied; maybe not
on the level of the sentence or paragraph or chapter but on the level
of a whole work of art. Many women do try hard to write versions of
male books and especially male movies (There's money in that.) Selling
themselves for centuries but now one does not have to.

In the US men are trying to make pregnancy compulsory, but having made
a miscarriage or anything going wrong in pregnancy, now life
threatening, the cruelty and drive to dominate women of many is
backfiring ...

I'm with Austen on Queen Caroline: she was on her side because she was a woman

Ellen


Ann Radcliffe: how central, importnt, untelligent & yet written out of the canon

 

A new edition the occasion of this review with links to other essays
on Radcliffe. I am chuffed because what is said about her and her
books is precisely my view and I agree she was ridiculed and written
out because she was a woman





Austen's remarks in NA quoted. To me the absurdity of attributing the
gothic craze to apple's shallow burlesque a way of excluding the real
starts: Lee's The Recess and Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest

Ellen


Re: BILLIARDS AND GAMBLING IN REGENCY PERIOD

 

Some would bet on everything including which raindrop would get to the
bottom of the window first. Two people could bet on a game even if others
wouldn't. It really depended on the people.
Nancy

On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 8:22?PM Mary Cantwell via groups.io <Mary=
[email protected]> wrote:

Do any of you know whether gambling was a common practice with billiard
games played in private homes/clubs in Regency Era?

I'm intrigued since this is where John Thornton and General Tilney met up,
i.e., billiards.

I Googled what I could, but I know that this group has members with
specialized knowledge of the Regency Era, and I'm interested in finding out
what you all know.

Thank you

-Mary






BILLIARDS AND GAMBLING IN REGENCY PERIOD

 

Do any of you know whether gambling was a common practice with billiard games played in private homes/clubs in Regency Era?

I'm intrigued since this is where John Thornton and General Tilney met up, i.e., billiards.

I Googled what I could, but I know that this group has members with specialized knowledge of the Regency Era, and I'm interested in finding out what you all know.

Thank you

-Mary


Re: The Olive-Branch

 

I have never denied Jane Austen's disdain for serial pregnancy. She isn't
really pleased with pregnancy at all. I have never agreed that Austen put
this into any book and particularly not NA where the Morland family of many
hopeful children is thriving and the mother is still alive. There are many
dead mothers in Austen's works. It is rather a trope in fiction that the
heroine has to be without a mother, have a worthless mother, or be away
from a sensible mother in order to have an adventure. There is not a
single mother who died of multiple pregnancies, if by multiple, is meant
more than 4, In fact, Mrs. Price and Mrs. Moreland are mothers with the
most children and they are still very much alive. The dead Mrs. Tilney had
3 children. The dead Lady Eliot had 3 children. Mrs. Fairfax and Mrs.
Weston had one child each. Mrs. Woodhouse had two children. The Musgrove's
had four children and the mother is still alive to endure grandchildren. I
think Austen expressed her opinions about pregnancy in her letters but not
in her novels.
We might as well think that Mrs. Tilney died from being beaten by her
husband. That is much more likely. There is as much proof of that means of
death as any other.
Nancy

On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 12:30?AM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

Thank you Nancy. Actually another article about Pamela's pregnancy that
actually outlines her "career" as a pregnant wife is this one:

The Pregnant Pamela: Characterization and Popular Medical Attitudes in the
Eighteenth Century

by Dolores Peters Eighteenth-Century Studies , Summer, 1981, Vol. 14, No.
4 pp. 432-451


I

Given my assertion since 2008 (that you always deny, Nancy, in our eternal
dance here in Janeites) that this theme of serial pregnancy and death in
childbirth is a major subtext of *Northanger Abbey *vis a vis Mrs.
Tilney*,* I
believe this is the first time I have ever found these fears explicitly
described or enacted in fiction that we *know *Jane Austen read, and read
closely. How ironic and sad if Pamela was the only book she ever read that
made explicit what so many married Englishwomen of that era feared during
their entire childbearing married years.


ARNIE



On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 3:46?PM Nancy Mayer via groups.io
<regencyresearcher@...> wrote:

Mr. B was definitely the father.
I found the article on JSTOR South Atlantic Review N.1 1993
The Edible Woman: Eating and Breast-Feeding in the Novels of Samuel
Richardson
Laura Fasick
<




On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 5:17?PM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

NANCY: "I think Mr. B is referring to a baby Pamela is carrying. A part
of
the book that is less published mentions that Pamela had a baby son and
that Mr. B thought that her nursing the baby herself would remind
people
that he married some one from a much lower class. ( of course, class
wasn't
used then.) According to the author of an essay, husbands of the 18th
century had a great deal to say about whether the wife nursed the child
or
not."

Interesting, Nancy, thanks!

Do you mean that there were multiple editions of Pamela, and in some of
them it mentions Pamela having been pregnant, but in others not?

Was Mr. B the father, or was that unclear?

If you can point me to where in Pamela that is mentioned without
inconvenience, that would be wonderful

Thanks, ARNIE



At the end of Richardson¡¯s *Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded*, after Mr.
B
has
married Pamela, he reveals to Pamela the story of his illegitimate
daughter, Miss Goodwin. He does this in a back-handed way, by first
introducing Pamela to Miss Godwin, whom he had placed in a boarding
school
nearby, without revealing her true relationship to him. Then, after
Pamela
begins to suspect that he is more than an ¡°uncle¡± to the girl, he
tells
Pamela that she is in fact his daughter, and how that came about.
Pamela
warmly accepts the little girl, whom they will then take into their
new
marital home.

Then we read this statement by the buoyant Pamela in her letter to
her
parents:

¡°Yesterday we set out, attended by John, Abraham, Benjamin, and
Isaac,
in
fine new liveries, in the best chariot, which had been new cleaned,
and
lined, and new harnessed; so that it looked like a quite new one.
But I
had
no arms to quarter with my dear lord and master¡¯s; though he
jocularly,
upon my taking notice of my obscurity, said, that he had a good
mind
to
have the olive-branch, which would allude to his hopes, quartered
for
³¾¾±²Ô±ð.¡±

Wikipedia informed me thusly as to the meaning of ¡°arms to
±ç³Ü²¹°ù³Ù±ð°ù¡±:

¡°a heraldic term that refers to the practice of dividing a shield
into
four
or more sections, or compartments, to display multiple coats of
²¹°ù³¾²õ¡±.

My question is, does Mr. B mean by that reference to the
olive-branch
to
symbolize his hopes that Pamela will continue to accept his
daughter
as
if
she were her own; and moreover, to accept his reformation from
predatory
rake to faithful husband as bona fide.

Of course, a few of you have been reminded by the above of the
references
by Mr. Collins to olive-branches, and in particular the baby he
hints
Charlotte is carrying ¨C it's interesting to think of them as
allusions
to
the above passage in *Pamela.*

ARNIE













The Olive-Branch

 

Thank you Nancy. Actually another article about Pamela's pregnancy that
actually outlines her "career" as a pregnant wife is this one:

The Pregnant Pamela: Characterization and Popular Medical Attitudes in the
Eighteenth Century

by Dolores Peters Eighteenth-Century Studies , Summer, 1981, Vol. 14, No.
4 pp. 432-451


It is indeed clear from the moment they get married during the first
*Pamela* novel, that Mr. B wants her to become pregnant right away. - he
hints at it at least a couple of times, as Peters explains. So when he
speaks about the olive-branch at the very end of the first *Pamela* novel,
he either knows she is pregnant, or fervently hopes she is. That makes the
likelihood that Mr. Collins's final wink about Charlotte being pregnant was
Austen's wink at this line in *Pamela *that much greater.


The above-cited article also discusses Pamela's fears of dying in
childbirth, and her Austen-like chagrin at being serially pregnant since
her marriage, as expressed in the fourth from the last letter in the second
*Pamela* novel ("Mr. B. kindly accompanied me, apprehending that his
presence would be necessary, if the recovery of them both [Pamela's sick
parents], in which I thankfully rejoice, had not happened; *especially as a
circumstance I am, I think, always in, added more weight to his
apprehensions*.")


Given my assertion since 2008 (that you always deny, Nancy, in our eternal
dance here in Janeites) that this theme of serial pregnancy and death in
childbirth is a major subtext of *Northanger Abbey *vis a vis Mrs. Tilney*,* I
believe this is the first time I have ever found these fears explicitly
described or enacted in fiction that we *know *Jane Austen read, and read
closely. How ironic and sad if Pamela was the only book she ever read that
made explicit what so many married Englishwomen of that era feared during
their entire childbearing married years.


ARNIE



On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 3:46?PM Nancy Mayer via groups.io
<regencyresearcher@...> wrote:

Mr. B was definitely the father.
I found the article on JSTOR South Atlantic Review N.1 1993
The Edible Woman: Eating and Breast-Feeding in the Novels of Samuel
Richardson
Laura Fasick
<




On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 5:17?PM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

NANCY: "I think Mr. B is referring to a baby Pamela is carrying. A part
of
the book that is less published mentions that Pamela had a baby son and
that Mr. B thought that her nursing the baby herself would remind people
that he married some one from a much lower class. ( of course, class
wasn't
used then.) According to the author of an essay, husbands of the 18th
century had a great deal to say about whether the wife nursed the child
or
not."

Interesting, Nancy, thanks!

Do you mean that there were multiple editions of Pamela, and in some of
them it mentions Pamela having been pregnant, but in others not?

Was Mr. B the father, or was that unclear?

If you can point me to where in Pamela that is mentioned without
inconvenience, that would be wonderful

Thanks, ARNIE



At the end of Richardson¡¯s *Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded*, after Mr. B
has
married Pamela, he reveals to Pamela the story of his illegitimate
daughter, Miss Goodwin. He does this in a back-handed way, by first
introducing Pamela to Miss Godwin, whom he had placed in a boarding
school
nearby, without revealing her true relationship to him. Then, after
Pamela
begins to suspect that he is more than an ¡°uncle¡± to the girl, he
tells
Pamela that she is in fact his daughter, and how that came about.
Pamela
warmly accepts the little girl, whom they will then take into their
new
marital home.

Then we read this statement by the buoyant Pamela in her letter to
her
parents:

¡°Yesterday we set out, attended by John, Abraham, Benjamin, and
Isaac,
in
fine new liveries, in the best chariot, which had been new cleaned,
and
lined, and new harnessed; so that it looked like a quite new one.
But I
had
no arms to quarter with my dear lord and master¡¯s; though he
jocularly,
upon my taking notice of my obscurity, said, that he had a good mind
to
have the olive-branch, which would allude to his hopes, quartered for
³¾¾±²Ô±ð.¡±

Wikipedia informed me thusly as to the meaning of ¡°arms to ±ç³Ü²¹°ù³Ù±ð°ù¡±:

¡°a heraldic term that refers to the practice of dividing a shield
into
four
or more sections, or compartments, to display multiple coats of
²¹°ù³¾²õ¡±.

My question is, does Mr. B mean by that reference to the olive-branch
to
symbolize his hopes that Pamela will continue to accept his daughter
as
if
she were her own; and moreover, to accept his reformation from
predatory
rake to faithful husband as bona fide.

Of course, a few of you have been reminded by the above of the
references
by Mr. Collins to olive-branches, and in particular the baby he hints
Charlotte is carrying ¨C it's interesting to think of them as
allusions
to
the above passage in *Pamela.*

ARNIE









Re: The Olive-Branch

 

Mr. B was definitely the father.
I found the article on JSTOR South Atlantic Review N.1 1993
The Edible Woman: Eating and Breast-Feeding in the Novels of Samuel
Richardson
Laura Fasick
<>



On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 5:17?PM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

NANCY: "I think Mr. B is referring to a baby Pamela is carrying. A part of
the book that is less published mentions that Pamela had a baby son and
that Mr. B thought that her nursing the baby herself would remind people
that he married some one from a much lower class. ( of course, class wasn't
used then.) According to the author of an essay, husbands of the 18th
century had a great deal to say about whether the wife nursed the child or
not."

Interesting, Nancy, thanks!

Do you mean that there were multiple editions of Pamela, and in some of
them it mentions Pamela having been pregnant, but in others not?

Was Mr. B the father, or was that unclear?

If you can point me to where in Pamela that is mentioned without
inconvenience, that would be wonderful

Thanks, ARNIE



At the end of Richardson¡¯s *Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded*, after Mr. B
has
married Pamela, he reveals to Pamela the story of his illegitimate
daughter, Miss Goodwin. He does this in a back-handed way, by first
introducing Pamela to Miss Godwin, whom he had placed in a boarding
school
nearby, without revealing her true relationship to him. Then, after
Pamela
begins to suspect that he is more than an ¡°uncle¡± to the girl, he tells
Pamela that she is in fact his daughter, and how that came about.
Pamela
warmly accepts the little girl, whom they will then take into their new
marital home.

Then we read this statement by the buoyant Pamela in her letter to her
parents:

¡°Yesterday we set out, attended by John, Abraham, Benjamin, and Isaac,
in
fine new liveries, in the best chariot, which had been new cleaned, and
lined, and new harnessed; so that it looked like a quite new one. But I
had
no arms to quarter with my dear lord and master¡¯s; though he jocularly,
upon my taking notice of my obscurity, said, that he had a good mind to
have the olive-branch, which would allude to his hopes, quartered for
³¾¾±²Ô±ð.¡±

Wikipedia informed me thusly as to the meaning of ¡°arms to ±ç³Ü²¹°ù³Ù±ð°ù¡±:

¡°a heraldic term that refers to the practice of dividing a shield into
four
or more sections, or compartments, to display multiple coats of ²¹°ù³¾²õ¡±.

My question is, does Mr. B mean by that reference to the olive-branch
to
symbolize his hopes that Pamela will continue to accept his daughter as
if
she were her own; and moreover, to accept his reformation from
predatory
rake to faithful husband as bona fide.

Of course, a few of you have been reminded by the above of the
references
by Mr. Collins to olive-branches, and in particular the baby he hints
Charlotte is carrying ¨C it's interesting to think of them as allusions
to
the above passage in *Pamela.*

ARNIE





Re: The Olive-Branch

 

I think most editions of Pamela are abbreviated and the part of their life
after marriage left out.
I don't remember the name of the journal in which I found the article. It
was the journal of a language association which held a conference in
Atlanta around 1989.
If I can find the reference I will tell you.
Nancy

On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 5:17?PM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

NANCY: "I think Mr. B is referring to a baby Pamela is carrying. A part of
the book that is less published mentions that Pamela had a baby son and
that Mr. B thought that her nursing the baby herself would remind people
that he married some one from a much lower class. ( of course, class wasn't
used then.) According to the author of an essay, husbands of the 18th
century had a great deal to say about whether the wife nursed the child or
not."

Interesting, Nancy, thanks!

Do you mean that there were multiple editions of Pamela, and in some of
them it mentions Pamela having been pregnant, but in others not?

Was Mr. B the father, or was that unclear?

If you can point me to where in Pamela that is mentioned without
inconvenience, that would be wonderful

Thanks, ARNIE



At the end of Richardson¡¯s *Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded*, after Mr. B
has
married Pamela, he reveals to Pamela the story of his illegitimate
daughter, Miss Goodwin. He does this in a back-handed way, by first
introducing Pamela to Miss Godwin, whom he had placed in a boarding
school
nearby, without revealing her true relationship to him. Then, after
Pamela
begins to suspect that he is more than an ¡°uncle¡± to the girl, he tells
Pamela that she is in fact his daughter, and how that came about.
Pamela
warmly accepts the little girl, whom they will then take into their new
marital home.

Then we read this statement by the buoyant Pamela in her letter to her
parents:

¡°Yesterday we set out, attended by John, Abraham, Benjamin, and Isaac,
in
fine new liveries, in the best chariot, which had been new cleaned, and
lined, and new harnessed; so that it looked like a quite new one. But I
had
no arms to quarter with my dear lord and master¡¯s; though he jocularly,
upon my taking notice of my obscurity, said, that he had a good mind to
have the olive-branch, which would allude to his hopes, quartered for
³¾¾±²Ô±ð.¡±

Wikipedia informed me thusly as to the meaning of ¡°arms to ±ç³Ü²¹°ù³Ù±ð°ù¡±:

¡°a heraldic term that refers to the practice of dividing a shield into
four
or more sections, or compartments, to display multiple coats of ²¹°ù³¾²õ¡±.

My question is, does Mr. B mean by that reference to the olive-branch
to
symbolize his hopes that Pamela will continue to accept his daughter as
if
she were her own; and moreover, to accept his reformation from
predatory
rake to faithful husband as bona fide.

Of course, a few of you have been reminded by the above of the
references
by Mr. Collins to olive-branches, and in particular the baby he hints
Charlotte is carrying ¨C it's interesting to think of them as allusions
to
the above passage in *Pamela.*

ARNIE





The Olive-Branch

 

NANCY: "I think Mr. B is referring to a baby Pamela is carrying. A part of
the book that is less published mentions that Pamela had a baby son and
that Mr. B thought that her nursing the baby herself would remind people
that he married some one from a much lower class. ( of course, class wasn't
used then.) According to the author of an essay, husbands of the 18th
century had a great deal to say about whether the wife nursed the child or
not."

Interesting, Nancy, thanks!

Do you mean that there were multiple editions of Pamela, and in some of
them it mentions Pamela having been pregnant, but in others not?

Was Mr. B the father, or was that unclear?

If you can point me to where in Pamela that is mentioned without
inconvenience, that would be wonderful

Thanks, ARNIE

At the end of Richardson¡¯s *Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded*, after Mr. B has
married Pamela, he reveals to Pamela the story of his illegitimate
daughter, Miss Goodwin. He does this in a back-handed way, by first
introducing Pamela to Miss Godwin, whom he had placed in a boarding
school
nearby, without revealing her true relationship to him. Then, after
Pamela
begins to suspect that he is more than an ¡°uncle¡± to the girl, he tells
Pamela that she is in fact his daughter, and how that came about. Pamela
warmly accepts the little girl, whom they will then take into their new
marital home.

Then we read this statement by the buoyant Pamela in her letter to her
parents:

¡°Yesterday we set out, attended by John, Abraham, Benjamin, and Isaac, in
fine new liveries, in the best chariot, which had been new cleaned, and
lined, and new harnessed; so that it looked like a quite new one. But I
had
no arms to quarter with my dear lord and master¡¯s; though he jocularly,
upon my taking notice of my obscurity, said, that he had a good mind to
have the olive-branch, which would allude to his hopes, quartered for
³¾¾±²Ô±ð.¡±

Wikipedia informed me thusly as to the meaning of ¡°arms to ±ç³Ü²¹°ù³Ù±ð°ù¡±:

¡°a heraldic term that refers to the practice of dividing a shield into
four
or more sections, or compartments, to display multiple coats of ²¹°ù³¾²õ¡±.

My question is, does Mr. B mean by that reference to the olive-branch to
symbolize his hopes that Pamela will continue to accept his daughter as
if
she were her own; and moreover, to accept his reformation from predatory
rake to faithful husband as bona fide.

Of course, a few of you have been reminded by the above of the references
by Mr. Collins to olive-branches, and in particular the baby he hints
Charlotte is carrying ¨C it's interesting to think of them as allusions to
the above passage in *Pamela.*

ARNIE


Re: The Olive-Branch

 

I think Mr. B is referring to a baby Pamela is carrying. A part of the book
that is less published mentions that Pamela had a baby son and that Mr. B
thought that her nursing the baby herself would remind people that he
married some one from a much lower class. ( of course, class wasn't used
then.) According to the author of an essay, husbands of the 18th century
had a great deal to say about whether the wife nursed the child or not.
Nancy

On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 1:50?PM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

At the end of Richardson¡¯s *Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded*, after Mr. B has
married Pamela, he reveals to Pamela the story of his illegitimate
daughter, Miss Goodwin. He does this in a back-handed way, by first
introducing Pamela to Miss Godwin, whom he had placed in a boarding school
nearby, without revealing her true relationship to him. Then, after Pamela
begins to suspect that he is more than an ¡°uncle¡± to the girl, he tells
Pamela that she is in fact his daughter, and how that came about. Pamela
warmly accepts the little girl, whom they will then take into their new
marital home.



Then we read this statement by the buoyant Pamela in her letter to her
parents:



¡°Yesterday we set out, attended by John, Abraham, Benjamin, and Isaac, in
fine new liveries, in the best chariot, which had been new cleaned, and
lined, and new harnessed; so that it looked like a quite new one. But I had
no arms to quarter with my dear lord and master¡¯s; though he jocularly,
upon my taking notice of my obscurity, said, that he had a good mind to
have the olive-branch, which would allude to his hopes, quartered for
³¾¾±²Ô±ð.¡±



Wikipedia informed me thusly as to the meaning of ¡°arms to ±ç³Ü²¹°ù³Ù±ð°ù¡±:

¡°a heraldic term that refers to the practice of dividing a shield into four
or more sections, or compartments, to display multiple coats of ²¹°ù³¾²õ¡±.



My question is, does Mr. B mean by that reference to the olive-branch to
symbolize his hopes that Pamela will continue to accept his daughter as if
she were her own; and moreover, to accept his reformation from predatory
rake to faithful husband as bona fide.



Of course, a few of you have been reminded by the above of the references
by Mr. Collins to olive-branches, and in particular the baby he hints
Charlotte is carrying ¨C it's interesting to think of them as allusions to
the above passage in *Pamela.*



ARNIE






The Olive-Branch

 

At the end of Richardson¡¯s *Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded*, after Mr. B has
married Pamela, he reveals to Pamela the story of his illegitimate
daughter, Miss Goodwin. He does this in a back-handed way, by first
introducing Pamela to Miss Godwin, whom he had placed in a boarding school
nearby, without revealing her true relationship to him. Then, after Pamela
begins to suspect that he is more than an ¡°uncle¡± to the girl, he tells
Pamela that she is in fact his daughter, and how that came about. Pamela
warmly accepts the little girl, whom they will then take into their new
marital home.



Then we read this statement by the buoyant Pamela in her letter to her
parents:



¡°Yesterday we set out, attended by John, Abraham, Benjamin, and Isaac, in
fine new liveries, in the best chariot, which had been new cleaned, and
lined, and new harnessed; so that it looked like a quite new one. But I had
no arms to quarter with my dear lord and master¡¯s; though he jocularly,
upon my taking notice of my obscurity, said, that he had a good mind to
have the olive-branch, which would allude to his hopes, quartered for ³¾¾±²Ô±ð.¡±



Wikipedia informed me thusly as to the meaning of ¡°arms to ±ç³Ü²¹°ù³Ù±ð°ù¡±:

¡°a heraldic term that refers to the practice of dividing a shield into four
or more sections, or compartments, to display multiple coats of ²¹°ù³¾²õ¡±.



My question is, does Mr. B mean by that reference to the olive-branch to
symbolize his hopes that Pamela will continue to accept his daughter as if
she were her own; and moreover, to accept his reformation from predatory
rake to faithful husband as bona fide.



Of course, a few of you have been reminded by the above of the references
by Mr. Collins to olive-branches, and in particular the baby he hints
Charlotte is carrying ¨C it's interesting to think of them as allusions to
the above passage in *Pamela.*



ARNIE


A Calendar for Austen's Sense and Sensibility

 

I am truly delighted that my blog-essay called A Calendar for Sense
and Sensibility is now up on, and part of Sarah Emsley's Summer party
for Jane Austen's S&S. It's based on my timelines from and for
Austen's six seemingly finished novels, and three of her four
unfinished novels. I published one paper (on the calendar I found in
S&S) and put all the others on my website under the rubric: Time in
Jane Austen: A Study of her Uses of the Almanac. While studying the
novels this way I discovered (among other things) that in all but
Northanger Abbey and Sanditon memorable and linchpin events where
there is a hurtful humiliation of a heroine or great social loss, or
deprivation/dispossession Austen has configured her timeline to make
the day or evening a Tuesday. Since it's an attempt to show some
fundamental about S&S, the other Austen's novels, and the nature of
her art I am especially pleased to provide closure for this wonderful
seasonal celebration



Ellen


My first published essay on S&S

 

I'm now writing a brief essay on the timeline & Tuesday in S&S (and
other Austen novels) for Sarah Emley's blog -- perfect excuse to spend
evening wallowing in the Ang Lee/Emma Thompon 1995 S&S and Davis' 2008
S&S.

How much I prefer the latter to the former. I found. Davies seeing
where Austen does go wrong, and beautiful filling ot of Brandon owes
much to Thompson's script

Ellen