tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post6347649515080694156..comments2024-01-29T03:20:32.291-05:00Comments on ...... SHARP ELVES SOCIETY ...... Jane Austen's Shadow Stories: Philadephia Austen and the Temple of Hastings the Godfather of the Austen FamilyArnie Perlsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-33303722865348708952011-02-15T00:55:19.136-05:002011-02-15T00:55:19.136-05:00Mary, some quick answers:
"So it would seem ...Mary, some quick answers:<br /><br />"So it would seem that Jane Austen would take a swipe or two at the French. Was this patriotism or did she have to cow-tow a little to the prevailing franco phobia of her time?"<br /><br />I think it's a faux Francophobia, but I think she also saw the French Revolution as having gone very wrong, due mostly to too much testosterone among the revolutionaries.<br /><br />"Did she dedicate her book to the Prince Regent so that people would not assume that she was the subversive that she really is (and I use that in a good sense). Did she live in a time, much like the 50's, that if you made any social statement sympathetic to the poor, you had to follow it up with extreme patriotic comment to make sure you were not suspected of being a commie...?....."<br /><br />Yes, to all of the above, PLUS she loved a great put-on, especially if it was pulled on a powerful man. Emma was the ultimate put on. <br /><br />"was Jane a royalist or republican (small "r")?"<br /><br />Definitely not a defender of aristocratic (or male) privilege.Arnie Perlsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-6798860378883460682011-02-14T19:20:39.257-05:002011-02-14T19:20:39.257-05:00Some questions about the influence of the French R...Some questions about the influence of the French Revolution on Jane Austen; your previous posts about her distain for the Prince Regent and her willingness to dedicate a book to him.... <br />One reader friend of mine,beyond me in Austen scholarship, believes that Frank Churchill was given the name "Frank" as both an effiminate nomenclature (less than a man of principles) and also as a slap at "Franco" values (going to London to get a hair cut, overall frivolousness). So it would seem that Jane Austen would take a swipe or two at the French. Was this patriotism or did she have to cow-tow a little to the prevailing franco phobia of her time? Did she dedicate her book to the Prince Regent so that people would not assume that she was the subversive that she really is (and I use that in a good sense). Did she live in a time, much like the 50's, that if you made any social statement sympathetic to the poor, you had to follow it up with extreme patriotic comment to make sure you were not suspected of being a commie...? Jane Austen was an iconoclast but she worked her way around society pretty well. If you grew up in her time and you were excited about French enlightenment, ideas of reason and equality, did you have to make sure to let the powers that be know that you did not also go along with all of the beheadings? Finally, to you Jane Austen historians, was Jane a royalist or republican (small "r")? Let us know what your research shows.mary cantwellnoreply@blogger.com