I just read the most amazing post on Melanie Dickerson's blog. She's reviewing Nancy Moser's book, Just Jane, about Jane Austen. I've definitely got to read this book. I love Jane Austen anyway, but I had no idea she, too, apparently struggled with waiting to be published.
I'll let Melanie tell you more. Go check out her blog post:
http://melaniewrites.blogspot.com/2007/11/just-jane-by-nancy-moser.html
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Yeah, girl! You have to read that book. It encouraged me so much, I can't tell you. When someone finally did agree to publish one of her books, he paid her 10 pounds, then she waited SIX YEARS and finally wrote the guy, and he said he never agreed to publish it, that if she let someone else publish it he would sue her, and that she could buy it back from him for 10 pounds. But by that time her family was quite impoverished and she didn't even have 10 pounds.
ReplyDeleteThen, years later, one of her brothers paid to have Sense and Sensibility published. It sold fairly well and got mostly great reviews. Then she sold Pride and Prejudice for 110 pounds. But she never enjoyed the great success in her lifetime that she deserved. But yes, she had to PERSEVERE! Big time. Besides suffering all the wrongs of prejudice against women. One reviewer said that Pride and Prejudice was too wise and clever to have been written by a woman.
thanks for this encouragement, robin and melanie! I'm gonna check at my library to see if they have the book. jane austen was one of my favorite authors when I was in HS but I haven't read one of her books in ages. Long overdue for another look, dont you think? rose
ReplyDeleteI love some of Jane Austen's sassy little quotes like, "I do not wish people to be so very friendly as it saves me the trouble of liking them very much." What a lady! I'll have to check that out when my TBR pile gets to be more manageable.
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