Quote:
Originally Posted by MaggieScratch
Zelda, anything else you want to know until you get the book?  |
surprise me.
actually i remember being quite surprised, the first time i read an Austen book (Pride and Prejudice), at how easily they seemed to discuss the financial situations and other personal business of people they hardly knew, and how indiscreet their attitudes seemed by today's standards. i understand the material reasons for women needing to know whether a potential husband would be able to provide for them, of course, but still to my contemporary sensibilities it seemed almost shocking. i couldn't help wondering whether at that time such things really were common knowledge (in which case, *how* would someone's income be known ?) and the subject of casual discussions, as Austen portrayed, or whether she exagerrated those traits in a bit of rather biting social commentary... but perhaps that's not the subject of a footnote...
