Wednesday, December 23, 2009

A problem like Henry

Austen keeps the slightly improper tone going by introducing the subject of what Catherine did or did not dream of. And that raises what is, for me anway, a bit of a problem. Henry Tilney and Jane Austen are rather close. He says things that are flirtatious and arouse Catherine's sensibility but he also is the voice for a lot of observations about novels in general and it's hard to see how these observations are anything but Austen's own views. At other times, the problem with Henry is not that he speaks his Author's thoughts as he is just a little too obviously at her beck and call.

My first temptation is thing the novel we are reading here is a bit of a burlesque, although of what exactly is a mystery to me, and yet it is a marriage story too and that puts Henry Tilney in a strange place dramatically speaking.

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