Thrones, Dominations -classical proportions in Austen and Sayers
Posted by sanna on August 21, 1998 at 13:01:25:
(hello Jen M)
Iīve now read the new D.L.Sayers-Walsh "Thrones, Dominations". I must say I didnīt expect to enjoy it so much as I did, I usually find the sequels completed by someone else rather flat. I suppose the original draft helped, the result is really great! Ms Walsh keeps up the "conversation and manners"- style typical of Sayers. The murder-story is somewhat confused but the main-players follow the form they inherited from Sayers. Although it means that we donīt get so many new perspectives of the characters (Harriet as mother?) and one might miss the absurd and creative `magnaloquacity` of DLS (Iīm still short of my other Sayers-books, excuse bad quotes). I especially liked the 30īs as a spiritual environment: the description caught the right mood IMHO (but then Iīm not English... but the Abdication has always interested me enormously as a cultural, political and human phenomenon. And WW II and Nazism affected us all.)
Classical proportions? Well, I sort of feel that the form of creating a story, the "yarn"-technique of DLS and JA is similar and both writers have the "gift of reduction" that creates a strict form (thatīs reminiscent of classic art and the Golden Section or whatever...Well, excluding DLSīs babble sometimes?;-)) . DLS uses dialogue as a driving force in creating a character and their relations to each other and lets a reader judge a character by his/her actions (more than letting an omniscient narrator tell us what they are like.) Doesnīt Jane do the same? Comedy of manners (did I get it right?) - title suits both. And an acute moral observer without pomposity.
But I have a few comments and also questions for someone more informed or more English, theyīre probably more fitting to a DLS-website, but if you donīt mind...no?... "such generosity of spirit!" (these have connection to JA):
1. The wedding speech used in P&P2 is quoted in T&D.Where is it from? John Donne? A haphazard guess from a foreigner, donīt laugh at me. I just LOVE it!..."Thirdly, marriage was ordained for the mutual society, help and comfort..."
2. The one direct Austen-quote is the one where Mrs Reynolds is compared to Bunter as a judge of the character of his/her master. No other quotes?
3. ..now this is pure ignorance...What does "go up like a straw" mean? Some hidden symbolism?... "hadnīt she once told Miss de Vine that if she once gave way to Peter she would go up like straw?"p.171
"The marriage of true minds" - my beloved Shakespeare was quoted and suits both to Harriet and Peter and Darcy and Elizabeth.
Thank you for any answers!
Ducking, Sanna
- Austen, Sayers, ...and straw KathleenB 19:22:50 8/31/98
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- another answer - maybe? KathleenB 20:28:15 8/31/98
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- Thank you, KathleenB... sanna 10:05:11 9/02/98
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- sorry the previous is all in italics - need more pratice NFM KathleenB 20:30:57 8/31/98
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- Thank you, KathleenB... sanna 10:05:11 9/02/98
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- another answer - maybe? KathleenB 20:28:15 8/31/98
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