“I should be sorry to be examined by a real proficient”
Jane Austen news has been slow of late, so here is a diversion for you: a quiz on Persuasion from Persuasions No. 15, the journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America. There is a link to the answers, but see how you do without them first. (Anyone who can tell who Miss Larolles is without looking gets a thousand points that don’t mean anything.)
April 24th, 2007 at 2:56 am
I get a thousand points!
April 24th, 2007 at 10:15 am
“10. How far is it:
(a) from Uppercross to Kellynch?
(b) from Uppercross Great House to Uppercross Cottage?
(c) from Uppercross to Winthrop?
(d) from Uppercross to Lyme?
(e) from Kellynch to Bath?
(f) from Bath to Thornberry-Park?”
GOOD GRIEF!!!! Flashback to walking into an exam and instantly realizing I neglected to study an entire section. This is too cruel!
April 24th, 2007 at 11:47 am
“If it is 1/4 miles between Uppercross Great House and Uppercross Cottage and 3 miles between Uppercross to Kellynch, how far does Anne Elliot have to walk to get her petticoat soiled with mud?”
Not that she would - she isn’t as great at exercising as Elizabeth Bennet! (see the chapter where she gets a ride home from the Crofts in their gig because Captain Wentworth could tell she was tired)
Slight digression - some of the answers referred to the excised chapter, and I was wondering if anyone would recommend reading that? I tend to skip it because I figure Jane Austen decided it wasn’t appropriate for the novel. Plus I just love that “you pierce my soul” letter. So hot.
April 24th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Yes!!! I get a thousand points, too!!!
April 24th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Anna–
IMHO, the excised chapter has some charming elements, but there’s no question that JA came up with something better. I think it’s worth reading because its shortcomings throw into high relief the plot problem that JA so cleverly managed to solve in the real ending–how to get Anne and Wentworth alone long enough to resolve their misunderstanding. In the canceled chapter, JA has to resort to a convoluted and, to my mind, rather strained expedient–Anne runs into Admiral Croft, he takes her home for an unscheduled visit, Mrs. Croft is too busy to greet her guest, the admiral asks Wentworth to broach with Anne (the merest acquaintance, as far as the admiral knows!) her supposed marriage to Mr. Elliot, and voila–at last they’re alone. In the real ending, by contrast, JA finds a far more elegant, beautiful, and thematically resonant solution: they’re alone without being alone, alone in the middle of a crowd of other people, speaking to each other without speaking. Sigh. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
April 24th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Oops! I’ve read ‘Persuasion’ recently for the first time and REALLY would be sorry to be examined by a real proficiant, so I am happy to let the other ladies prohibit.
And what is it about an excised chapter? Where can one read (about) that? *giddy*
April 24th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
… and that is of course ‘exhibit’.
Note to self: Must learn better English or to quote JA flawlessly. *blushes*
April 24th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Sylvia: read them right here! They are in the first-draft form in which Jane wrote them. These chapters are the original ending to Persuasion, which she rewrote to become the ending we know today. You’ll see where certain parts of the last two film adaptations came from…
April 24th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Thank you, Mags! I thoroughly enjoyed reading the original ending. So glad that Jane opted for the more intense second version, but I found it quite interesting to read her first attempt nontheless.
Are there any other first drafts (from the other novels) available that were later abandoned? I would enjoy reading those as well.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:54 am
No, unfortunately, just the unfinished novels (The Watsons and Sanditon) and the Juvenilia.
April 25th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Oh how delightful to read the originals! I have never done that before and now I wonder why. I confess I didn’t do as well on the quiz as I should have. I am used to writing them now; not taking them and this one was hard! I write the quizzes for the Jane Austen Centre and always wonder if they should be difficult or easy.
I don’t know if Sir Walter was completely delighted with Bath since there were so many ugly women and the men! infinitely worse.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Well I completely bombed on that quiz. But I’ve only read Persuasion once.
April 26th, 2007 at 12:19 am
I happen to claim Persuasion as my favorite, but I utterly failed that quiz. Thanks for pointing it out. Must put it on my stack of books to read/re-read.
April 26th, 2007 at 7:54 am
I probably should point out that these quizzes are meant to be difficult–they give them out at the AGM as a contest.
April 26th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Thanks Deborah, I’ll have a look at the excised chapter next time I reread Persuasion.