Quote:
Originally Posted by wawasteele
"Everytime" he reads 'Pride and Predjuice'? Why would he keep reading that book if he really hated it? Is it possible that this specific quote was taken out of context somehow and meant to be humorous?
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Sounds that way, I found another quote, emphasis added:
Quote:
She makes me detest all her people, without reserve. Is that her intention? It is not believable. Then is it her purpose to make the reader detest her people up to the middle of the book and like them in the rest of the chapters? That could be. That would be high art. It would be worth while, too. Some day I will examine the other end of her books and see.
- "Jane Austen," published in 2009 in Who Is Mark Twain?
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Seems like he's saying he never got past the halfway point in any of her books. There's also this one, emphasis added:
Quote:
To me his prose is unreadable -- like Jane Austin's [sic]. No there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.
- Letter to W. D. Howells, 18 January 1909
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I know he was a journalist for a while, so it's possible he had to read her books to review them.