Good Novels and Intolerable Stupidity (and Quotes Taken Out of Context)
When we attribute the thoughts of a fictional character to the sentiments of their real-life author, we make a poor case for our own taste and talents in reading.
You guys have to stop quoting Caroline Bingley and Isabella Thorpe and Augusta Elton and attaching Jane Austen’s name to their insincere blatherings.
(I cannot possibly be accused of burying the lede this time.)
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature.” Thus speaks Isabella Thorpe in chapter six of Northanger Abbey, convincing the impressionable but lovable Catherine that she– the two-timing and shallow Isabella– really is a good friend. SPOILER ALERT, she is not. The words sound good, but the intent underneath is only to scheme and manipulate.
Why, then, is Isabella so frequently quoted as if her veneered little quip about her ostensible loyalty was a thoughtful aphorism Jane Austen wrote in a sermon to young ladies?
Well, the short answer is of course that media literacy is dying and people like to quote famous dead authors without actually reading them. But as…
