Did he even read the letter?
Posted by Clare on March 18, 1998 at 00:00:30:
In response to First Impressions Rejection!, written by Cheryl on March 17, 1998 at 12:20:42
Who the heck was this incredibly thick publisher? One wonders if he even read it. And I can't help but wonder that if it were published and a success, how many more books might Jane have written? How much more comfortable would her life had been?
Page 122 says that the letter was returned with the words "declined by return of post" written across the top. I thought that meant that the publisher had refused to pay for the price of the postage (as the receiver paid for the mail unless the letter was franked) and had returned the letter unopened.
Am I reading it wrong? Or does it mean that he opened the letter and then just sent it back? Why would he send back a the original letter??
Actually, I am glad that he didn't publish the book. Since JA did revisions that made P&P into the perfection it is today, I think it is likely that those revisions were needed. Perhaps some of our favorite scenes were not even written at that time! If it had been published and it was not a sucess (the times being wrong for the tone of the book or the book not as good) - then JA may not have published anymore- and where would we be now??
It was meant to be the way it worked out IMHO.
Clare (who finally ordered a copy of the bio- got it yesterday and has been reading all last night and this afternoon to catch up to you all!)
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