Tumblr crosspost (13 October 2019)
May. 17th, 2021 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghrainesuddenwildmagic at Tumblr responded to a post I wrote about parallels between P&P and Much Ado About Nothing:
just remembered this post and have to add obligatory <3 <3 because Much Ado/P&P comparison
I replied:
:)))
I once wrote a paper about it, and the entire first paragraph consisted of the history of P&P/Much Ado comparisons, going from 2017 back to an anonymous reviewer in March of 1813 who said that Elizabeth “is in fact the Beatrice of the tale.”
(P&P was published on Jan 28, 1813.)
otoh Shakespeare himself certainly adapted a number of myths, at least (and also wrote historical fiction)
Yes! Actually, that’s what interests me most about Shakespeare’s influence on Austen—if you look at, say, Lear and Mansfield Park (though it’s less pronounced than Much Ado/P&P), the lineage of narrative keeps going back and back. They’re these towering shapers of story, but they’re also working with material that existed for a long time before either of them were born or thought of.
just remembered this post and have to add obligatory <3 <3 because Much Ado/P&P comparison
I replied:
:)))
I once wrote a paper about it, and the entire first paragraph consisted of the history of P&P/Much Ado comparisons, going from 2017 back to an anonymous reviewer in March of 1813 who said that Elizabeth “is in fact the Beatrice of the tale.”
(P&P was published on Jan 28, 1813.)
otoh Shakespeare himself certainly adapted a number of myths, at least (and also wrote historical fiction)
Yes! Actually, that’s what interests me most about Shakespeare’s influence on Austen—if you look at, say, Lear and Mansfield Park (though it’s less pronounced than Much Ado/P&P), the lineage of narrative keeps going back and back. They’re these towering shapers of story, but they’re also working with material that existed for a long time before either of them were born or thought of.