I had to throw this tor you, since I started giggling when I read it:Prof. Butler on Henry Tilney
Posted by Carolyn B on January 07, 1998 at 14:29:40:
I had to throw this tor you, since I started giggling when I read it:
Marilyn Butler in intro essay to Penguin Classics edition of NA:
"Rather than seeming aligned with his father and Thorpe (both, like Frederick Tilney, men's men), Henry is a mysterious, almost allegorical figure, who stands for androgynous ideas*, youthful play, the comic spirit, romance.
* is this academia run amok??
Anyway Butler does continue on a more comprehensible note:
" Literally he is named after Austen's favorite brother, four years older than herself. But at a deeper level, the fictional Henry doubles for Jane Austen, twice over: by being much her age (twenty-four) at the time of writing, several years senior to the adolescent Catherine; by representing, in his inventiveness and playfulness, the voice and creative role of the author.
... which earlier in this discussion, people here at RofP already concluded in much more lucid prose! : )
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