See, THIS is why we snark
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.
November 20th, 2005 at 8:24 pm
I almost e-mailed you that, but then I figured it would be tantamount to an insult because I knew the editrix would be all over it already like white on rice.
Wouldn’t it be marvelous if she really HAD died at 57? No doubt, we’d be discussing at least four or five more wonderful novels of hers, packed with characters who would have already stood the test of time and inspired nearly as many (if not more) adaptations and dramatic reinterpretations as the Bard of Avon’s, himself.
Sigh.
This was just beyond depressing.
I can’t even know where to start…I’m so depressed our otherwise decent city daily would print something so woefully lacking.
K
November 20th, 2005 at 8:49 pm
Even if she had just finished Sanditon–I am convinced that it would have been brilliant and a comedic tour de force.
(And actually Our Esteemed Regional Coordinator told me about both articles!)
November 20th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
15 more years… wow, more gems to keep us burning the midnight oil! It would have been even better if she had lived on for 20 more years, if only to see her brother knighted!
November 21st, 2005 at 7:47 am
Or, if she’d lived till the 1870s, to see her obnoxious niece Lady Knatchbull decline into senility; and, write the Memoir instead of leaving that to her pompous nephew! Of course, that way we wouldn’t have got the letters - she would have destroyed all of her own letters, and published Cassandra’s!
November 21st, 2005 at 9:37 am
Thanks for the “esteemed” tag, Oh, Esteemed Web Master.
November 21st, 2005 at 1:41 pm
I wish that I could post the review from my hometown newspaper (Vancouver, BC). I couldn’t stop laughing after I read it; the Bennets became “Barnetts”, Bingley for some unfathomable reason became Sir William Lucas, and apparantly there is only four “Barnett” sisters.
November 21st, 2005 at 2:31 pm
My husband showed me this article in the Phila. Inquirer yesterday and I almost popped a tonsil! How stupid can you be not to check the info about a subject on which you are writing. Wonder why I don’t read the paper?
November 22nd, 2005 at 9:15 am
Has anyone written these guys (letter to the editor) to correct their many mistakes? Would this be a waste of time? Might be fun to write a “strongly-worded letter”