final thoughts...
Posted by Kate on April 16, 1998 at 08:24:18:
In response to Some final thoughts on the book, written by Barbara on April 15, 1998 at 10:14:15
] So, as a parting thought, I have this to say: We were robbed! :-(
Oh, I absolutely agree. It's tragic.
I also wanted to say
1. I found reading the final chapters about Jane's illness and death really hard - knowing that she still had such talent, writing "in the teeth of death" and probably in a great deal of pain, and seemed to have so much more to say...such a loss to us all.
2. I actually really enjoyed Tomalin's take on the novels, though I disagreed with her a lot. But Tomalin's effort to see the novels in the context of JA's life, and her interesting psychological takes were interesting and refreshing. And I think I agreed with her about S&S and Colonel Brandon (sorry!)
3. She did "presume" an awful lot. But there is an enormous space for presumption, no? Like others, I feel armed now to read the letters and some of the more "technical" biographies with some sense of the whole curve of JA's life. And as any historian will tell you, there is no such thing as historical truth - there is only our perception of what might have been true. We can never gather enough evidence to know, because we can never get inside the head of every person involved.
And our perception of what might have been true is affected by what we think is important in life - which is very different to what may have been important way back when...
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