In a well known (although,
I would imagine, not widely read) novel by an author as famous as Jane Austen, there
is a single long chapter which contains every single one of the following:
ONE: The chapter title
refers to a character whose first name is JANE.
TWO: A paragraph of
narration containing multiple references to both “WOOD(s)” and a “HOUSE”.
THREE: In that same
paragraph, as well as in a later paragraph in that same long chapter, the young
heroine enjoys “views” of those “woods”, as well as the “gardens”, which
comprise that same estate, and those “views” are described repeatedly as
“sweet” and “English”; and that narration includes usages of all of the
following words: “shade/shadow”, “view” “beauty”, and “charming”.
FOUR: One reference to
those views also comments on whether the situation is “oppressive” to the young
heroine.
FIVE: There’s a reference
to a young female character being waylaid while walking in that forest.
SIX: A young female character
confesses to having kept “relics” as “treasure” wrapped in “paper”, the specific
color of which paper is described.
SEVEN: There are
references to a woman who had nursed one of the characters, and also to an old
maid.
EIGHT: There are multiple pointed references to
“apples”.
NINE: There are multiple
references to a “governess”.
TEN: 6 or 7 years after
writing that later novel, that other famous author expressed opinions about
Austen’s fiction, opinions which, when viewed through the lens of the above
nine echoes, are at a minimum disingenuous, and may well have been deliberately
(but covertly) ironic.
Who is that later author,
and what is that title of that later novel? For bonus points, which chapter is
it in that later novel?
Whether I get any replies
or not, I will post the answers to these questions by no later than Saturday
afternoon. In addition, I will make the argument for why those answers are even
more significant than they might at first glance seem to be.
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment