I think we would.
Posted by P. Bingham on March 21, 1998 at 19:12:51:
In response to ... but would we have read?, written by Sarah P on March 20, 1998 at 05:29:41
Financial independence was, I think, not really something she expected when she was writing. Most women who wrote in this period did not make much, just enough to perhaps suppliment if at all that. Jane was a savvy business woman and she would have known this. And as far as finding the time to write, lots of these women writers during this time were married with children and they managed it. She would have had servants to help her with her household and raising children was not nearly as difficult for a woman (in what her position would have been) as it is today. I mean parents had housekeepers and governesses. Of course she could have died in childbirth and that would have been a little disappointing to us! Tomlin talks later in the ook about another gentleman who had asked her to marry him and she said yes and then the next day refused. Tomlin states that of course she would not have been able to write and publish. Which would mean that she agrees with you. But I would have appreciated Tomlin's reasons for thinking this. I whole-heartedly disagree. Jane came from a family of published writers and she expected that she would be one too. Later, when she was speaking to her neice, I can't remember which one bu one who was writing a book, she expected her to be published as well. I don't think she wrote as a need to contribute something, to herself or anyone else. Writing was something that she had enjoyed all her life from childhood , and was an integral part of her family. Sorry that was all bumbled!
Patricia
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