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I'm reading this between sequels -- I might reread The Other Bennet Sister. I'm finding it very fresh, stimulating, but not sure how to blog/write about it. It seems to me Todd is doing something unusual: she comes in at an angle which is usually omitted: her gut reactions, partly founded in personal history and hr reading of other l'ecriture-femme I'd call it.This is the level that undergirds and explains a close reading or other kind of book (scholarly, source study &c) about books. The problem I'm not sure how to write coherently myself. But it is very interesting. I find my gut reactions to Austen's books were intially and still are quite different, but think hers are the more frequent. And thus it has explanatory power for me. For example my favorite heroine is Elinor Dashwood, and after that Fanny Price; the book I'd start with Sense and Sensibility. Far from finding Austen's letters captivating, I find them interestingly bitchy, resentful, always partisan.

More when I've finished. I plan an omnibus blog when I finally am feeling stronger not so tired.

Ellen

I like her letters for being a view into life of the day. They tell us,
also, that she was a real person. A person with links and dislikes and a
sometimes sharp tongue( or pen). I think Fanny Price is the most
misunderstood character in Austen's novels. Remember all the Fanny wars
that used to erupt on Austen-L and other fora? I don't understand how so
many can say they hate her, However, I do believe that a good many of
those who say they love Austen mean they love the movie versions of Pride
and Prejudice.
The other subject on which I am adamant is that Cassandra didn't burn
Jane's letters to her , but she burned her letters TO Jane.
Nancy

On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 11:07?AM Ellen Moody via groups.io <ellen.moody=
[email protected]> wrote:

I'm reading this between sequels -- I might reread The Other Bennet
Sister. I'm finding it very fresh, stimulating, but not sure how to
blog/write about it. It seems to me Todd is doing something unusual: she
comes in at an angle which is usually omitted: her gut reactions, partly
founded in personal history and hr reading of other l'ecriture-femme I'd
call it.This is the level that undergirds and explains a close reading or
other kind of book (scholarly, source study &c) about books. The problem
I'm not sure how to write coherently myself. But it is very interesting. I
find my gut reactions to Austen's books were intially and still are quite
different, but think hers are the more frequent. And thus it has
explanatory power for me. For example my favorite heroine is Elinor
Dashwood, and after that Fanny Price; the book I'd start with Sense and
Sensibility. Far from finding Austen's letters captivating, I find them
interestingly bitchy, resentful, always partisan.

More when I've finished. I plan an omnibus blog when I finally am feeling
stronger not so tired.

Ellen

To Nancy, I remember. I was a defender of Fanny. Imust love the six
novels as I never tire of them. The best Austen faithful style film
for me is the 1995 Persuasion with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds.
I don't dislike Austen's letters exactly; they are not easy to
understand cut out of context, and bowdlerized. They are written by
the same person who wrote the fiction and can help us understand her
books and something of her life and character. On your last belief
that's not the sense of Mary Austen's statement; Edward Austen-Leigh's
daughter is one of those who writes Austen destroyed a majority of the
letters. This is from memory, but I recall she does not specify which
or what, just "a majority."

Ellen

On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 11:20?AM Nancy Mayer via groups.io
<regencyresearcher@...> wrote:

I like her letters for being a view into life of the day. They tell us,
also, that she was a real person. A person with links and dislikes and a
sometimes sharp tongue( or pen). I think Fanny Price is the most
misunderstood character in Austen's novels. Remember all the Fanny wars
that used to erupt on Austen-L and other fora? I don't understand how so
many can say they hate her, However, I do believe that a good many of
those who say they love Austen mean they love the movie versions of Pride
and Prejudice.
The other subject on which I am adamant is that Cassandra didn't burn
Jane's letters to her , but she burned her letters TO Jane.
Nancy

On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 11:07?AM Ellen Moody via groups.io <ellen.moody=
[email protected]> wrote:

I'm reading this between sequels -- I might reread The Other Bennet
Sister. I'm finding it very fresh, stimulating, but not sure how to
blog/write about it. It seems to me Todd is doing something unusual: she
comes in at an angle which is usually omitted: her gut reactions, partly
founded in personal history and hr reading of other l'ecriture-femme I'd
call it.This is the level that undergirds and explains a close reading or
other kind of book (scholarly, source study &c) about books. The problem
I'm not sure how to write coherently myself. But it is very interesting. I
find my gut reactions to Austen's books were intially and still are quite
different, but think hers are the more frequent. And thus it has
explanatory power for me. For example my favorite heroine is Elinor
Dashwood, and after that Fanny Price; the book I'd start with Sense and
Sensibility. Far from finding Austen's letters captivating, I find them
interestingly bitchy, resentful, always partisan.

More when I've finished. I plan an omnibus blog when I finally am feeling
stronger not so tired.

Ellen

Ellen, I well remember the Fanny wars. At the time I'd have said I wasn’t especially fond of the novel, but it was due to your defense of MP that I went back and reread it for the first time. Up till then, it was the only Austen novel I hadn’t read multiple times. I’ve since come to appreciate the richness of the writing and the characters, and that Austen was really trying something new.


Nancy wrote:
The other subject on which I am adamant is that Cassandra didn't burn
Jane's letters to her , but she burned her letters TO Jane.


Never thought of that, Nancy. It almost makes more sense, tho.

Dorothy

It was the accepted practice that when a person died, the relatives
retrieved their letters to the deceased, if they had been kept. Letters
were seldom solely for the person to whom addressed, particularly females.
The letters were usually read aloud to the family. Postage was expensive so
few sent letters to multiple people at the same address unless one had a
birthday or other special day.
Cassandra did cut up letters to give people just the autograph and some
letters no doubt were lost.
Cassandra and Jane usually lived together and i is only that Cassandra
was asked to help Edward after his wife died and that she helped out
elsewhere that we have any letters at all. Instead of blaming Cassandra
for destroying mythical letters, she should be honoured for preserving so
many.
Nancy

On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 10:01?PM Dorothy Gannon via groups.io
<dorothy.gannon@...> wrote:

Ellen, I well remember the Fanny wars. At the time I'd have said I wasn’t
especially fond of the novel, but it was due to your defense of MP that I
went back and reread it for the first time. Up till then, it was the only
Austen novel I hadn’t read multiple times. I’ve since come to appreciate
the richness of the writing and the characters, and that Austen was really
trying something new.


Nancy wrote:
The other subject on which I am adamant is that Cassandra didn't burn
Jane's letters to her , but she burned her letters TO Jane.


Never thought of that, Nancy. It almost makes more sense, tho.

Dorothy

Austen wrote to other people. We are told there were 3 packets between
her & Frank, the older sailor brother. The granddaughter, we are told,
without asking permission, early one morning destroyed the lot. The
tone in which that is told suggests disapproval, what of it's not
clear.. There was a correspondence between her and Martha Lloyd, her
and Ann Sharp, some few to Eliza, to other friends, her nephew, to the
nieces Fanny and Anna. Most of all this destroyed, -- or never kept.
Scattered business letters we may call them. Maybe to Edgeworth with
that gift of a copy of Emma.

Ellen


On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 10:28?PM Nancy Mayer via groups.io
<regencyresearcher@...> wrote:

It was the accepted practice that when a person died, the relatives
retrieved their letters to the deceased, if they had been kept. Letters
were seldom solely for the person to whom addressed, particularly females.
The letters were usually read aloud to the family. Postage was expensive so
few sent letters to multiple people at the same address unless one had a
birthday or other special day.
Cassandra did cut up letters to give people just the autograph and some
letters no doubt were lost.
Cassandra and Jane usually lived together and i is only that Cassandra
was asked to help Edward after his wife died and that she helped out
elsewhere that we have any letters at all. Instead of blaming Cassandra
for destroying mythical letters, she should be honoured for preserving so
many.
Nancy

On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 10:01?PM Dorothy Gannon via groups.io
<dorothy.gannon@...> wrote:

Ellen, I well remember the Fanny wars. At the time I'd have said I wasn’t
especially fond of the novel, but it was due to your defense of MP that I
went back and reread it for the first time. Up till then, it was the only
Austen novel I hadn’t read multiple times. I’ve since come to appreciate
the richness of the writing and the characters, and that Austen was really
trying something new.


Nancy wrote:
The other subject on which I am adamant is that Cassandra didn't burn
Jane's letters to her , but she burned her letters TO Jane.


Never thought of that, Nancy. It almost makes more sense, tho.

Dorothy

It is surprising that so many letters survived. Jane's brothers were not
settled in one place. Even Henry moved around. Letters have a better
chance of survival when both parties stayed in one place.
Nancy

Yes it is.It shows the family were a literary bunch. Letters &
documents also survive when there is a huge house, with an attic that
no one is using. James Austen regarded himself as a poet & writer;
George, the father, was a scholar with a private library pof his own,
the mother wrote social verse ...

Ellen.

On Mon, Apr 28, 2025 at 10:24?AM Nancy Mayer via groups.io
<regencyresearcher@...> wrote:

It is surprising that so many letters survived. Jane's brothers were not
settled in one place. Even Henry moved around. Letters have a better
chance of survival when both parties stayed in one place.
Nancy