Alert Janeite Robin sent us this link a while back but we forgot to post it till now (Dorothy’s bookkeeping has been really slipshod of late). A new completion of The Watsons is available in the U.K. (couldn’t find it on Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com).
Do these journalists have no researchers?
The Editrix is shamed to confess that her hometown newspaper is responsible for perpetrating the following:
Four years before she died at age 57, Jane Austen wrote a revealing letter to her sister Cassandra in which she extolled the rewards of being single.
She said she didn’t mind being a spinster because “I am put by the fire and can drink as much wine as I like.”
Actually the quote is about getting older (and is one of our favorites): “By the bye, as I must leave off being young, I find many Douceurs in being a sort of chaperon, for I am put on the Sofa near the Fire & can drink as much wine as I like.”
But, seriously: age 57? Where the heck did THAT come from? That’s not even something one can blame on a typo. It’s not even close. And it’s not like that information isn’t easily available with a simple Google search.
Those in the Philadelphia suburbs might be pleased to read another article that appeared in today’s Daily Intelligencer, which is unfortunately not available online, that talks about the continuing interest in Jane Austen. The writer was intelligent enough to seek out Austen scholars such as Professor Jan Fergus of Lehigh University and members of JASNA (the Editrix’s region, which is why she was alerted to this article) who spoke of their affection for Jane Austen’s work with taste and eloquence.
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