tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post6082116697573570258..comments2024-03-29T02:57:53.320-04:00Comments on ...... SHARP ELVES SOCIETY ...... Jane Austen's Shadow Stories: A Long P.S. to Jane Austen's Letter 61: "....Miss SAWBRIDGE is married...": The Hidden Feminist BombshellArnie Perlsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-70793274063776936652012-01-11T20:42:26.537-05:002012-01-11T20:42:26.537-05:00Two very quick amendments to the above:
1. The fi...Two very quick amendments to the above:<br /><br />1. The first cousin of CSM, whose maiden name was also Catherine Sawbridge, married a Mr. Heron in 1779, but not at Chilham Castle as I originally wrote, but in the Long Room AT GODMERSHAM! Godmersham was at that time the home of Anne Broadnax, who was by that time a widow living with her brother Thomas Knight the elder. <br /><br />2. In addition to the allusions to CSM by JA in JA's History of England, as well as P&P and Emma, I forgot to mention what I believe is the most important allusion by JA to CSM's writing in all of JA's novels--in Northanger Abbey. Having a heroine named Catherine who has no use for real solemn history, but instead looks for truth through the telling of stories in novels, is a wonderful veiled homage to CSM, who wrote HER History of England in the form of a series of letters to a friend, just like in an epistolary novel. I believe JA took great inspiration from CSM's innovation in that regard.<br /><br />PLUS...if you read the passage in Chapter 10 of Northanger Abbey in which Henry teases Catherine about dancing and marriage being more similar than different, you may just note that the action takes place in a "long room", which I believe is a veiled homage to that very same 1779 wedding held in the Long Room at Godmersham when JA was 4 years old, a wedding in which JA's family was formally connected to CSM's family, a connection I believe JA was proud of.Arnie Perlsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.com