Jane Austen discussion

Story by Victoria Owens in the collection Dancing with Mr. Darcy

These are the first 5 stories within the Dancing with Darcy collection. Please feel free to discuss any or all of them. We will list discussion threads for 5 additional stories from the collection each week this month.

So Jane gets called to account for her lack of respect for the elderly ladies in her stories. This is a funny concept really. I don't believe I have thought of her stories in that way. It seems she was more so pointing out that some people (and hers happened to be women of older years) profess more wisdom, kind motivation, and good advice than they actually have. This is an interesting short story.

I thought the story was clever. You can call me oblivious because I never really noticed this tendency of Jane's to make a mockery of older women.

At the risk of sounding too oblivious, I'll ask this question: What's up with the ending? I did not get the last line: 'It is extraordinary that I should even know who you are, Aunt Jane, for of my earthly life I can remember nothing." Why can't Fanny remember anything? I must be missing something; help!

I enjoyed this story because it did point out something I think most people, like you said Sandi, don't notice about Jane's work. The premise is a good one, and I like that Mrs. Norris was the primary antagonist. As for the last line, Fanny says they gave her "water of Lethe" to drink when she arrived in Elysium--I assumed that took away memories of life.

Aha. So the allusion to water of Lethe went over my head. Certainly not the first timehtat's happened!

Antagonist: a very good word for Mrs. Norris...

I enjoyed this story. All the characters we love to dislike all lined up in full form. I don't think of Austen as disliking older women - I don't think of those characters as older. I think of them as annoying!

I didn't think of those characters as a group either. If anything, I think the pattern might be those who were interested only in social climbing and so interested in the rigid social class system that they often mistreated those they considered beneath them.

I think older women tended to fall prey to those flaws in her books more often because that is the generation they came from and their world more or less revolved around such things. It went against their upbringing and was "dangerous" to go against the system.

I think that desire to be true to herself and for people (herself included) to be able to love the person they wanted - regardless of station or money was what drove her to write many of her stories.