a footnote's explanation
Posted by Susan H on August 12, 1998 at 10:54:40:
In response to NA question, written by AmandaB on August 11, 1998 at 22:05:54
] I've just started NA, and a line confused me. It was, "Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, though his name was Richard -- and he had never been handsome." What does being a respectable man have to do with being named Richard? I am most seriously confused!
The World's Classic edition has this footnote: "this may be an Austen family joke. In Letters, p. 15, we read 'Mr. Richard Harvey's match is put off till he has got a Better Christian name, of which he has great Hopes' (15 September 1796)."
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