ordination...
Posted by Kate on March 18, 1998 at 12:38:15:
In response to A question re. Mansfield Park (no Fanny :-), written by Tilde on March 18, 1998 at 03:42:01
] I am trying to narrow down the field, whence this question:
] To whom did JA claim that MP was a novel about ordination ? And where can I find it ?
In the introduction to my copy, the author (Marilyn Butler) says that RW Chapman, who originally said that JA has said this, made a mistake. It appears in one of JA's letters 29 Jan, 1813. The letter reads:
"Now I will try to write of something else, and it shall be a complete change of subject - ordination - I am glad to find you equiries have proceeded so well. If you could discover whether Northhmaptonshire is a country of hedgerows I should be glad again."
In an article in the Times Literary Supplement in 1968, Hugh Brogan and Mary Lascelles established that this should be read as though there is a full stop after subject... which means that the ordination relates to the following sentence, not the previous one.
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