tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post2474121503529284419..comments2024-03-29T02:57:53.320-04:00Comments on ...... SHARP ELVES SOCIETY ...... Jane Austen's Shadow Stories: Mrs. Oliphant and her "modern" take in 1870 on Pride and Prejudice and Jane AustenArnie Perlsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-24283017029993061272011-07-14T15:12:34.019-04:002011-07-14T15:12:34.019-04:00Praise indeed from a grand master.... but see I ha...Praise indeed from a grand master.... but see I have my uses too...!!mockingbirdnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-24780208278497139842011-07-14T14:48:28.196-04:002011-07-14T14:48:28.196-04:00Mockingbird, you have just raised my Mrs. Oliphant...Mockingbird, you have just raised my Mrs. Oliphant level 1000%, as I did not know ANY of the interesting things you wrote about--you're better than Wikipedia! ;)<br /><br />Cheers, ARNIEArnie Perlsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-27302568296407518732011-07-14T05:17:49.797-04:002011-07-14T05:17:49.797-04:00Oh yes I have always had a soft spot for Mrs Oliph...Oh yes I have always had a soft spot for Mrs Oliphant, a very very clever woman... And perhaps the reason why she didn't quite complete the circle was because she was creating her own works of genius..... <br /><br />I always loved the part in HESTER, where an elopement doesn't happen because of strawberry jam, in both PHOEBE JUNIOR and KIRSTEEN where the unmarried daughter sees the mess the fathers etc have made of life and in spite of years of having been put down as females it is they and their money who save the families...<br /><br />Not to mention this quote from SALEM CHAPEL:<br /> <br />'Many a time before this, the widow had been compelled to submit to that female tribulation – to be shut up apart, and leave the great events outside to be transacted by those incautious masculine hands, in which, at the bottom of her heart, a woman seldom has perfect confidence when her own supervising influence is withdrawn' <br /><br />and are you familiar with this bit from her autobiography where she is comparing herself to George Eliot...<br /><br />'How handicapped I have been in life! Should I have done better if i had been kept, like her, (George Eliot)in a mental greenhouse and taken care of? ... It is a little hard sometimes not to feel that the men who have no wives, who have given themselves up to their art, have had an almost unfair advantage over us.'<br /><br />And from the same book the father is critical of one daughter Mab trying to earn money from painting...'It is nonsense she must stay where she is, and make herself happy. A good girl is always happy at home' (Then follows a brilliant authorial comment that I am sure JA would have approved of.....)‘What a pity that children and women are not always convinced when the head of the household thus lays down the law.’mockingbirdnoreply@blogger.com