Did JA know about the birds and the bees?
Posted by Carolyn B on March 11, 1998 at 23:38:36:
Reading about the "uncensored access" that Jane had to her father's library (which I'm doubt had anything too graphic for a parson's perusal), I remembered the revelation during discussion of ARWAV that Forster didn't quite understand what sex was until he was about 30.
Did JA know the basic "facts of life"? Maybe Tomalin discusses this further ahead..... I'm only in Ch. 7!
I assume JA did, whether through things glimpsed or overheard or whispered conversations. (It may not have been the most medically and scientifically accurate conception of how babies were made but probably more accurate than Forster's idea of rubbing bellies together?) Certainly living in a house full of boys she would have had some notion that they were different!
What does this matter? I think it adds to the idea that JA was not some prissy spinster, but a smart, witty woman who knew about life. (Plus I rather enjoy the irony that JA at the turn of the 19th C. perhaps knew more than Forster at the turn of the 20th : )
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