Don’t call me Janie
Alert Janeite Cordelia sent us a link to an entry at the Open Writing ‘zine that is a Douglas Adamesque take on how Jane Austen got her ideas.
Jane often reminded her sister that she was free to write her own stories, which would be better than commenting critically on her own work. She was particularly incensed by the pettiness of some of her remarks.
“I don’t think Daneford-Yersley is a good name for this family you’re writing about. Sounds too, well, pretentious,” said Cassandra.
“So you would call them …?”
“Something much more simple, say, Robinson or - I know! - Bennet. That’s it: Bennet. That would fit in very nicely, I think. Certainly not Daneford-Yersley. People would laugh at that.”
[. . .]
That is why instead of Edward Batbroke we have William Collins, instead of Baroness Mountkreisen we have Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Sir Denzil Potts became plain George Wickham.
It’s hard to explain, but amusing. Just go read it. After all, for what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours and laugh at them in our turn?
July 22nd, 2005 at 8:42 am
It’s so cute, although I don’t have a clue why he wrote this in the first place.
So, Cassandra was the real mastermind. A new kind of conspiracy theory? She did all the important works like making up ‘catchy’ names. 
But I actually kinda like the original names, like Edward Batbroke, for one. LOL
Thank you for this, Mags. As always.