accused the princess of adultery, and she now defended herself in a letter to the
Morning Chronicle
. Jane wrote: “I suppose all the World is sitting in Judgement upon the Princess of Wales’s letter. Poor Woman, I shall support her as long as I can, because she
is
a Woman, & because I hate her Husband.”
So how, then, did
Emma
, Jane’s next novel, come to be dedicated to this man?
Henry became ill while he was negotiating with a new publisher, John Murray, founder of the influential
Quarterly Review
, who had agreed to publish
Emma
. One of the doctors who attended him was a court physician who told Jane that the prince was a great admirer of her work, with a set of her novels in each of his residences. Although those novels had been published anonymously, Jane’s authorship was no longer a close secret by this time (and probably not one Henry would have kept from his doctors in any case). This doctor also informed the prince that Miss Austen was in town. The result was that the Reverend James Stanier Clarke, the librarian of the regent’s lavish and grand Carlton House, visited her at Henry’s and then invited her to visit Carlton House in turn. It appears that during this visit Mr. Clarke suggested she might dedicate her next novel to the prince. Although Jane at first hesitated to do so, she soon understood that she had received a command—and her simple dedication was turned into something quite gaudier by Murray.
S arah and K atherine
L AURA D RAVENSTOTT
The ladies entered the room decorously, proceeding at a modest pace whilst the gentleman indicated the appropriate seats, upon which they were to recline gracefully during the whole of the interview. The first lady, indeed, was all smiles and amiability, nodding to one and to the other as she surveyed the room and took notes of which cameraman might be disposed to present her at the most beneficial angle, and she favored him with a nod, aware that her entrance from the left of the stage presented her figure to great benefit.
The second lady presented a visage more inclined to the sedate, not serious to be sure but yet reluctant to compose such smiles as wreathed the face of her more amiable companion. Indeed, it seemed to the cameraman that she had perhaps much at stake and that her reserve, though modest, indicated a sterner mental faculty than her partner, which perhaps would bode ill for the first lady.
The gentlewomen were seated. The first, the most honorable governor, Mrs. Palin, made certain that her spectacles were aligned most becomingly and demonstrated her prepossession with another smile and nod at the assemblage. The second, the elegant and reserved Mrs. Couric, found her focus not upon the opposite lady’s countenance, but upon her hairstyle, which elevation and contrivance seemed most amazing.
Mrs. Couric opened their intercourse with a condescending query as to her companion’s experience with foreign nations. “My dear Mrs. Palin, I have heard you state that your proximity—in your fair home of Alaska—to other nations contributes to your experience in the areas of foreign policy with these nations. Would you take the trouble to explain what you have meant by that?”
Mrs. Palin tilted her excellently coiffed head. She reflected but briefly on what she was to include in her response, preferring more to rely upon the goodwill of her companion than to any wit or intelligence that might be required of the answer. “Why, Mrs. Couric, to be sure! I was merely indicating that Alaska—my home state, which you are, of course, acquainted with—has quite a narrow maritime border between itself and a foreign country, which is Russia. On our other side is the land, the boundary you might say, that we have with Canada. I found it rather startling and not so very amusing that my comment was ill treated by the uncouth reporters who rather …” She hesitated, confused either of how to reprimand said reporters or of which syllables were most
Morning Chronicle
. Jane wrote: “I suppose all the World is sitting in Judgement upon the Princess of Wales’s letter. Poor Woman, I shall support her as long as I can, because she
is
a Woman, & because I hate her Husband.”
So how, then, did
Emma
, Jane’s next novel, come to be dedicated to this man?
Henry became ill while he was negotiating with a new publisher, John Murray, founder of the influential
Quarterly Review
, who had agreed to publish
Emma
. One of the doctors who attended him was a court physician who told Jane that the prince was a great admirer of her work, with a set of her novels in each of his residences. Although those novels had been published anonymously, Jane’s authorship was no longer a close secret by this time (and probably not one Henry would have kept from his doctors in any case). This doctor also informed the prince that Miss Austen was in town. The result was that the Reverend James Stanier Clarke, the librarian of the regent’s lavish and grand Carlton House, visited her at Henry’s and then invited her to visit Carlton House in turn. It appears that during this visit Mr. Clarke suggested she might dedicate her next novel to the prince. Although Jane at first hesitated to do so, she soon understood that she had received a command—and her simple dedication was turned into something quite gaudier by Murray.
S arah and K atherine
L AURA D RAVENSTOTT
The ladies entered the room decorously, proceeding at a modest pace whilst the gentleman indicated the appropriate seats, upon which they were to recline gracefully during the whole of the interview. The first lady, indeed, was all smiles and amiability, nodding to one and to the other as she surveyed the room and took notes of which cameraman might be disposed to present her at the most beneficial angle, and she favored him with a nod, aware that her entrance from the left of the stage presented her figure to great benefit.
The second lady presented a visage more inclined to the sedate, not serious to be sure but yet reluctant to compose such smiles as wreathed the face of her more amiable companion. Indeed, it seemed to the cameraman that she had perhaps much at stake and that her reserve, though modest, indicated a sterner mental faculty than her partner, which perhaps would bode ill for the first lady.
The gentlewomen were seated. The first, the most honorable governor, Mrs. Palin, made certain that her spectacles were aligned most becomingly and demonstrated her prepossession with another smile and nod at the assemblage. The second, the elegant and reserved Mrs. Couric, found her focus not upon the opposite lady’s countenance, but upon her hairstyle, which elevation and contrivance seemed most amazing.
Mrs. Couric opened their intercourse with a condescending query as to her companion’s experience with foreign nations. “My dear Mrs. Palin, I have heard you state that your proximity—in your fair home of Alaska—to other nations contributes to your experience in the areas of foreign policy with these nations. Would you take the trouble to explain what you have meant by that?”
Mrs. Palin tilted her excellently coiffed head. She reflected but briefly on what she was to include in her response, preferring more to rely upon the goodwill of her companion than to any wit or intelligence that might be required of the answer. “Why, Mrs. Couric, to be sure! I was merely indicating that Alaska—my home state, which you are, of course, acquainted with—has quite a narrow maritime border between itself and a foreign country, which is Russia. On our other side is the land, the boundary you might say, that we have with Canada. I found it rather startling and not so very amusing that my comment was ill treated by the uncouth reporters who rather …” She hesitated, confused either of how to reprimand said reporters or of which syllables were most
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