Perhaps I am too "light and bright"...
Posted by MB on January 19, 1998 at 19:10:04:
In response to Looking at Patrick's question from a slightly different angle, written by Caroline on January 15, 1998 at 18:47:20
] Does the comment about thre "lopp'd and cropp'd" P&P being "rather too light and bright", and "wanting shade" apply in this? Should it have been stretched out with passages of sombre tone, or long discourses of "specious nonsense?" I have always taken this particular comment to be a serious one, and to be a reference that the ideas of balance have not been achieved, according to her own judgement.
...but I never thought of it this way. I always took it as ironic and as a slight "dig" at contemporary authors who were doing that (according to Sir Walter Scott) "Big Bow-Wow strain". I don't think she seriously considered adding any "long discourses"; she let her feelings and opinions be known in a less didactic way through her characters and their "fates".
Michele
(too often light, too seldom bright, sparkling only when wearing large earrings)
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