#john mullan

[bethanydelleman]

Jane and Bingley never have a recorded word between them?? I need to lie down…

Isn't that fascinating? I forget where I first learned this, but I did check and it is true. All their dialogue is described, either by Jane Bennet or the narrator.

There is a really interesting chapter of What Matters in Jane Austen by John Mullan where he lists all the characters who speak but are never quoted and it's somewhat shocking:

Captain Benwick, Persuasion Anne de Bourgh, Pride & Prejudice Georgiana Darcy, Pride & Prejudice Mr. Perry, Emma Robert Martin, Emma

The Captain Benwick one really blew me away because he seems to say so much! The Emma ones are fascinating because Mr. Perry is talked about all the time and his advice is discussed, but he's never even on page. He haunts the narrative as much as Mrs. Churchill. Robert Martin is never allowed to defend himself from Emma's slander by being quoted to the reader. We can only imagine him through her filtered opinion.

[lindahall]

John Mullan – Scientist of the Day

John Mullan, an American Army officer, explorer, and road engineer, was born July 31, 1830, in Norfolk, Virginia.

read more...

[wholesomeobsessive]

Little things matter, not because Austen’s interests are trivial, but because the smallest of details – a word, a blush, a little conversational stumble – reveal people’s schemes and desires.

What Matters In Jane Austen? by John Mullan

[cinemaocd]

Guardian book club podcast: AS Byatt

John Mullan talks to the author about poetry, scholarship and romance in her novel Possession

A. S. Byatt, one of my favorite authors has died. This is my favorite interview of her, with the delightful John Mullan of University College London.

[colonelfitzwilliams]

"People sometimes say, or think, that there's no sex in Jane Austen and, indeed, sometimes TV and film adapters feel the need to put it in. But it's there actually, reading between the lines. It's really clear in Pride and Prejudice that Lydia Bennet has been off for over a month, and she's only just 16, living in an apartment, in London, with a well known rake. and she's been living with him and she comes back to Longbourn full of fondness for him. It's a picture of sexual infatuation, teenage sexual infatuation and we're to think of this when we sometimes are invited to read between the lines.

"Mr. Bennet, why has he married such a fool as Mrs. Bennet? Why has such a witty and intelligent man married her? Well, he married her when she was young, we're later told, and attractive and if you're a gentlemen, the only way you get to sleep with the woman you fancy is by marrying her.

Even Mr. Darcy's famously disastrous first proposal to Elizabeth Bennet, has, I think we're supposed to infer, sexual passion behind it. He says 'You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. Ardently. And then he goes on to tell her all the reasons why it's a bad idea that he should marry her. But he's got to marry her. He's got to have her. You know? He can only get her by marrying her even though the marriage is from his haughty point of view very unwise. So, I think you feel the sexual passion in his blundering approach. So sexual desire is there, you're expected to understand it."

- John Mullan on sex in Pride and Prejudice

[lizziestudieshistory]

Lazy Sunday, ft. me finishing some books (finally!)

[metamehta]

Misconceptions drive Persuasion. In one telling use of the title word near the novel's end, 'persuasion' becomes a synonym for misunderstanding. Meeting Captain Wentworth at the White Hart, Anne recalls how, at the previous day's encounter, "the same unfortunate persuasion, which had hastened him away from the concert room, still governed".

Trying to diversify my reading and bring some non-fiction in, and figured a deep dive into Jane Austen would be the best way to do it 🤷‍♀️

[oupacademic]

New Books in New York. We're hoping the Dashwood sisters and a warm cup of tea will help us stay composed as the temperatures begin to drop outside...

Images and GIF by Nicole Piendel for Oxford University Press.