I have never been able to bear reading Austin, and don't know if I ever will -- but Jenkin's biography is going on my reading list for sure! And maybe (maybe) after that I'll give P&P another go.
I really appreciate everything you write here, Henry. It always feels like the best kind of learning experience for the way it encourages curiosity about culture and ideas.
Thanks, Henry. I love the note about “the deep sympathy between author and subject.” Richard Holmes says that biographers must fall in love with their subjects otherwise they won’t follow them very far. Why do you think such a biography took so long to arrive? Was it because it took a while for biography to be treated as a serious subject, or because Austen was overlooked as a woman, or…? Also noticed that Jenkins was 105 when she died - what an age!
Hard to say, but the lack of letters and scholarship is surely a big part of it. It was the work of R.C. Chapman above all that changed that, early in C20th
I will say that the first paragraph you've quoted does reflect a very partial view of Austen's time. Life would not have had much grace or elegance for workers in the Lancashire mills, let alone slaves on Sir Thomas Bertram's property in Antigua. And even those grand homes, the Pemberleys and Mansfield Parks, may not have had central heating, certainly not as we know it (the radiator, for example, didn't come along until the 1850s), and sanitation would have been rudimentary by our standards.
Of course, the second paragraph may make exactly this point—taking things out of context is always a bit risky. And it is very valid to ask why so many modern structures lack the beauty and elegance of that era (but not all; it's not as if there are no great architects any longer). And even more valid to ask why, when we, in the aggregate, are so much richer, so many people's lives are still wretched. All questions which surely wouldn't escape Austen's sharp eye if she were Tardis-ed to the presnt day.
I have never been able to bear reading Austin, and don't know if I ever will -- but Jenkin's biography is going on my reading list for sure! And maybe (maybe) after that I'll give P&P another go.
I really appreciate everything you write here, Henry. It always feels like the best kind of learning experience for the way it encourages curiosity about culture and ideas.
Terrific piece, Henry. Enjoyed the T And the H tremendously. Didn’t know about the biography. I always learn from and enjoy your posts.
Thanks :)
It's brilliant!
Thanks, Henry. I love the note about “the deep sympathy between author and subject.” Richard Holmes says that biographers must fall in love with their subjects otherwise they won’t follow them very far. Why do you think such a biography took so long to arrive? Was it because it took a while for biography to be treated as a serious subject, or because Austen was overlooked as a woman, or…? Also noticed that Jenkins was 105 when she died - what an age!
Hard to say, but the lack of letters and scholarship is surely a big part of it. It was the work of R.C. Chapman above all that changed that, early in C20th
...thank you. so much.
Fascinating.
I will say that the first paragraph you've quoted does reflect a very partial view of Austen's time. Life would not have had much grace or elegance for workers in the Lancashire mills, let alone slaves on Sir Thomas Bertram's property in Antigua. And even those grand homes, the Pemberleys and Mansfield Parks, may not have had central heating, certainly not as we know it (the radiator, for example, didn't come along until the 1850s), and sanitation would have been rudimentary by our standards.
Of course, the second paragraph may make exactly this point—taking things out of context is always a bit risky. And it is very valid to ask why so many modern structures lack the beauty and elegance of that era (but not all; it's not as if there are no great architects any longer). And even more valid to ask why, when we, in the aggregate, are so much richer, so many people's lives are still wretched. All questions which surely wouldn't escape Austen's sharp eye if she were Tardis-ed to the presnt day.
Do you think that a book about slavery and Lancashire mills only gives a partial account of history?