Penguin USA to release back-list titles as ebooks

[zelda_pinwheel]

arg, this is going to drive me crazy, is this version available in .lit (or mobi, actually) format yet ? i want to learn about the subtleties of british social hierarchy as well !

[Strether]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

arg, this is going to drive me crazy, is this version available in .lit (or mobi, actually) format yet ? i want to learn about the subtleties of british social hierarchy as well !

Or, you might learn that Darcy's annual income was nearly half a million pounds. Certainly puts his buying off Wickham in context. Chump change.

Jim

[HarryT]

Thanks, Jim - I didn't know that, either!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Strether

Or, you might learn that Darcy's annual income was nearly half a million pounds. Certainly puts his buying off Wickham in context. Chump change.

Jim

arg ! stop it ! i'm so frustrated !!! (or alternately, you could transcribe *all* the footnotes here, then i wouldn't be frustrated anymore... just be sure to change the wording and / or spread them out over several threads, so no-one gets all overheated about copyright )

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by Patricia

@MaggieScratch:

Oven temperature charts:
http://www.recipezaar.com/library/getentry.zsp?id=528
and a list with other useful conversions:
http://www.garvick.com/recipes/conversion.htm

And here's a link to Hearth: The Cornell Home Economics Research Archive:
http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/
which contains a lot of old recipe books.

AH! That explains much. But I do wonder how they determined the slowness or not-slowness of an oven in those days?

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by Strether

Or, you might learn that Darcy's annual income was nearly half a million pounds. Certainly puts his buying off Wickham in context. Chump change.

Jim

Some would say even more, because you have to consider the fact that he didn't have to pay income tax (though there were other taxes to pay that aren't paid these days) and that labor (servants, in other words) was cheap and goods expensive, rather than the other way around as it is now. Suffice to say he was reallllly rich, though not the richest man in England, or even in Jane Austen's novels. Mr. Rushworth was worth twelve thousand a year, after all. And the Duke of Devonshire's income was in the six figures (which is why I roll my eyes at those who claim Chatsworth was the inspiration for Pemberley).

Zelda, anything else you want to know until you get the book?

[sassanik]

Originally Posted by fargo

Hahaha

I don't know why I read the title of this post as: Pentagon USA to release black-list titles as ebooks

Gotta say I was thinking government black list too, instead of back list.


Amy

[zelda_pinwheel]

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...

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

AH! That explains much. But I do wonder how they determined the slowness or not-slowness of an oven in those days?

Easily. Put a spoonful of flour in the oven. If it goes dark brown after a couple of minutes then it is a hot oven. If it becomes golden, a medium oven. and if it goes pale beige then a slow-ish oven.
The test is mentioned in quite a few Victorian cookbooks.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Easily. Put a spoonful of flour in the oven. If it goes dark brown after a couple of minutes then it is a hot oven. If it becomes golden, a medium oven. and if it goes pale beige then a slow-ish oven.
The test is mentioned in quite a few Victorian cookbooks.

Of course back then you couldn't dial your oven to 250deg's either... so you have to resort to stuff like that. Ah technology... are we the better off for it?

BOb

[MaggieScratch]

That's what I meant, BOb, how could they tell the temperature? But how clever with the flour test. It makes all kinds of sense now.

@Zelda--how would such things be known? Gossip, of course. Darcy's income was spread all around the Meryton assembly within a few moments after he entered. I suspect the "good-natured, gossiping Lucases" of being involved. Likely Sir William Lucas knew the agent that rented Netherfield to Bingley who likely heard it from Bingley's agent (who would be in a position to know at least Bingley's income--and possibly gossiped himself with Darcy's agent) and then told all. :-) Though Jane Austen didn't talk much about servants and employees, I think they were probably a really good conduit of information. And I think it was pretty much widely known or easy to determine what a certain estate was worth. Darcy owned Pemberley, it was worth ten thousand a year, so everyone knew his income.

Speaking of rich men--Jane's brother Edward, who was adopted by rich, childless cousins as their heir, was richer than Darcy.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

arg, this is going to drive me crazy, is this version available in .lit (or mobi, actually) format yet ? i want to learn about the subtleties of british social hierarchy as well !

http://www.chinet.com/~laura/html/titles01.html
is rather interesting! The actual "meat" of the web site is in the "table of contents" section (links to each chapter).

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

@Zelda--how would such things be known? Gossip, of course. Darcy's income was spread all around the Meryton assembly within a few moments after he entered. I suspect the "good-natured, gossiping Lucases" of being involved. Likely Sir William Lucas knew the agent that rented Netherfield to Bingley who likely heard it from Bingley's agent (who would be in a position to know at least Bingley's income--and possibly gossiped himself with Darcy's agent) and then told all. :-) Though Jane Austen didn't talk much about servants and employees, I think they were probably a really good conduit of information. And I think it was pretty much widely known or easy to determine what a certain estate was worth. Darcy owned Pemberley, it was worth ten thousand a year, so everyone knew his income.

Speaking of rich men--Jane's brother Edward, who was adopted by rich, childless cousins as their heir, was richer than Darcy.

how silly of me, of course ; gossip, servants, the value of the estate... of course people would know. i think i was mostly shocked that it would be so acceptable and natural to discuss other people's finances (strangers, especially), as easily as you might discuss the weather or fashion or any other subject. thanks.

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

http://www.chinet.com/~laura/html/titles01.html
is rather interesting! The actual "meat" of the web site is in the "table of contents" section (links to each chapter).

thanks, i'll keep that handy in case i ever need to check something... actually i'm not that interested in the details of the english peerage as such, but some details in the context of reading a book are interesting, to understand the story better. i was just using that as a synechdoche for the footnotes in general.

[HarryT]

The book's now been released in secure Mobi format:

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook68293.htm?r=6a2

US$6.12 if you're a "club" member.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The book's now been released in secure Mobi format:

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook68293.htm?r=6a2

US$6.12 if you're a "club" member.

Secure Mobi pocket means, if we have a Kindle, then we have to hack the DRM security out of it?? P&P is my all time favorite novel, and I would like to have a really nice edition of it, but for the Kindle.

Ricky (who hasn't gotten her Kindle yet .... not till Monday, but who has downloaded about 150 books so far to stick in it)