Friday Bookblogging: Life with the Wickhams Edition
It is always amusing when one’s life turns into a Jane Austen novel. Currently we have the distinct pleasure of having Mr. and Mrs. George Wickham as upstairs neighbors. This is especially edifying and entertaining because the fabulous high-tech AustenBlog World Headquarters is contained within a rather old structure and we can hear all of their arguments. It’s better than anything on television.
For instance, one Saturday night, Mr. W. wanted to go to the pub and Mrs. W., apparently, did not. Begging and pleading did no good; bratty whining did no good; finally Mr. W. was driven to an extreme. He stood at the foot of the stairs (right where the plaster is cracked so the acoustics are especially good) and screamed up the stairs, “Fine! I’m going! And I’m going to find another girl and I’m going to f*** her and make sure you know about it!”
(Shockingly, Mrs. W. let him back IN when he returned a few hours later. She is a more forgiving woman than the Editrix; had Mr. W. belonged to us, he would have been sleeping on the lawn with the feral cats, surrounded by his belongings.)
This past Sunday, apparently Mr. W. had transgressed in some way, and she thought he should have brought her flowers. Mr. W. whined, “I would have BOUGHT you flowers if I had a CAR!” She opined that he could have walked around the corner to the produce place. He said he didn’t know the neighborhood well enough yet to go walking around somewhere he had never been. She whined that Mr. Denny would have bought her flowers. He countered that if he had money coming out his *** like Denny, he would have gone to college, and then he might have a car and could earn money; a rather circular argument that made us dizzy.
It is quite amusing to us that anyone could argue that Jane Austen had to “live” the experiences in her books; all she had to do was pay attention. People are so amusing; they are just like a book!
In other Austen-related book news, Alert Janeite Moe found a website with news about an upcoming Jane Austen-related book by Clare Harman, author of several biographies (including one of Fanny Burney that we have on our shelf).
My work-in-progress is Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World for Canongate Books (UK) and Henry Holt (US). It’s a history of Austen’s fame, the changing status of her work and what it has stood for, or been made to stand for, in English culture in the two hundred years since her death. Starting with Austen’s own experience as a beginning author, her difficulties getting published and her determination to succeed, I explore the history of how her estate was handled by her brother, sister, nieces and nephews, the eruption of public interest in Austen in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the making of her into a classic English author in the twentieth century, the critical wars that erupted as a result and, lastly, her powerful influence on contemporary phenomena such as chick-lit, romantic comedy, the heritage industry and film. Part biography, part cultural history, it’s a fascinating story, full of odd anecdotes and some new insights too.
It sounds great, and we look forward to reading it!
Lastly, congratulations to Laura G., whose name we drew to win a copy of Mr. Knightley’s Diary by Amanda Grange. Stay tuned for more swag from the AustenBlog Swag Trunk!
That’s it for Friday Bookblogging for this week, and always remember, Gentle Readers: Books Are Nice!
