Jane Austen

The Weekly Wrap: February 16-22

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A Non-Partisan Space

If you are on social media, you will notice what a partisan space it has become. I’ve chosen not to go that way with my blog. Let me share with you a bit of why that is. First of all, the name of this blog is “Bob on Books.” My focus is on the good, the true, and the beautiful about books, reading, and life. My primary focus is reviewing books–a lot on theological subjects and a wide smattering of other genres and subjects. And while some have tried to turn books into a matter for partisan politics, I refuse to go there.

It is not that I don’t have political opinions. If you read me closely, you can probably figure that out. You will see there are subjects I care about, values I hold, and this is probably reflected at least to some extent in the books I review. Some are part of our partisan squabbling. But I tend to think that much of what I write about concern things that transcend party–or national boundaries.

And that’s another thing. While I live in the United States, I am amazed by the global character of my audience. The world of books is an international world. My pandemic experience was immeasurably richer because of Canadian Louise Penny. I’ve loved the mysteries of the “Queens of Crime” (Sayers, Christie, Allingham, and Marsh), three of whom are from the UK and one from New Zealand. Theology written by Latino, African, and Asian scholars have broadened my understanding of my faith beyond its Euro-American base. Focusing on American political squabbles just seems like bad manners.

Finally, there are so many already clamoring for this lane. I don’t think I have much to add. And the contentiousness of this lane would distract me from reading and writing about what I’ve read. Rather, I like Emily Dickinson’s aphorism: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” I hope the books I review, the things I write about, the ways I curate my own social media spaces do that. I write not so much to confront or argue as to explore the goods of life for which we were made and the better world for which we long. Thanks for joining me in that journey.

Five Articles Worth Reading

On a related note, Alan Jacobs would like us to hit “pause” on what he calls “relevance mongering.” In “All the Distant Mirrors” he suggests our instinct to find contemporary relevance in past works is bad manners. We fail to listen to what people are saying about their own time.

If you’ve ever talked to an indie bookseller, you know both how much they love that work and how they live on a financial precipice. “Can a Nonprofit Model Work for Bookstores?” explores ways to help booksellers with their mission while alleviating some of the financial pressures.

“Are you conscious? A conversation between Dawkins and ChatGPT” reproduces a conversation between Richard Dawkins and Chat GPT about whether it is conscious and has real feelings. The dialogue may make you think so even while Chat GPT denies this is the case.

Then there is something new for Jane Austen fans! ‘The Forgotten Writers Who Influenced Jane Austen” is a review of a new book, Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney. Romney, a rare book collector, tracked down and read all she could of the writers Jane Austen read.

Finally, James Parker, in a review of a new book on Robert Frost, writes about “When Robert Frost Was Bad.” It’s a fascinating article on Frost’s development as a poet and his character as a human being.

Quote of the Week

British-American poet W. H. Auden was born February 21, 1907. This statement by him has me pondering:

“Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.“

I think this recognizes that we can all understand the draw of evil, but when one is given over to evil, that person only expects evil of others and can’t comprehend goodness. What do you think?

Miscellaneous Musings

Plagiarism is the blackest of sins for writers and scholars. Yet it happens. I’ve just begun reading R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface. In what I’ve read so far, the narrator takes the unpublished work of a college friend and represents it as her own, justifying it by her editing and revisions of the work. I suspect she is going to come to great grief over this (don’t tell me, you who’ve read it) but I’m intrigued by the process of rationalization behind her plagiarism.

Crowned with Glory and Honor: A Chalcedonian Anthropology by Michael A. Wilkinson is a theological monograph most will never pick up. I’ve been reveling in it for the careful and clear way he develops his argument. This may seem a stretch to some, but I find the same delight in this I did years ago reading John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. Both take complex ideas and unpack them step by step, but not in a dry, dusty fashion, but rather in a spirit infused with love for the God of whom they write.

I’ve occasionally purchased used vinyl recordings from online sellers. I’ve found that they provide good and accurate information about the recording I’m considering. After I wrote an online review on my initial experience with Thriftbooks, several people reported problems they’ve had. One even thought I was Thriftbooks! I generally have been happy with purchases but occasionally have had problems with wrong items, different editions than I expected, condition of books, and one item that never shipped. They’ve been good when I’ve contacted them. But I would like to see them up their game where you know specifically what book, what edition, and what condition you are buying–and then you get what you thought you were ordering.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Various authors, Anchor of My Soul

Tuesday: Margery Allingham, Cargo of Eagles

Wednesday: Miranda Zapor Cruz, Faithful Politics

Thursday, Jacques Lusseyran, And There Was Light

Friday: David Greenberg, John Lewis: A Life

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for February 16-22, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Review: Resisting the Marriage Plot

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Resisting the Marriage Plot (Studies in Theology and the Arts), Dalene Joy Fisher. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2021.

Summary: Contrary to prevailing ideas of Christianity being an oppressive force in women’s lives in Victorian literature, looks at four instances in this literature where women resist cultural expectations around marriage due to the liberating and empowering quality of their faith.

It’s fairly common in Victorian literary studies to show the oppression of women in the conventions of marriage. And it was indeed the case that marriage could be oppressive. Under coverture, discussed in this book, a woman’s legal rights were subsumed under her husband and she had no independent legal existence. She had no property rights of her own and so was economically dependent or “covered” by her husband. Even in a beneficent situation, the deprivation of these tokens of personhood, of agency, were a form of oppression. In an abusive situation it could be much worse. And many critics point to ways the church supported this understanding of marriage and the place of women.

Dalene Joy Fisher offers us a counterfactual in this study of four novelists whose characters resist the “marriage plot” in different ways, often at great cost to themselves, but sustained by convictions of their Christian faith that led them not to submit to marriage where this would compromise their human dignity. They are:

Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria in The Wrongs of Woman. Maria marries George Venables, only to discover he is libertine. He even pays a friend to seduce her. She decides to flee with her daughter, an unlawful act, and is confined to an asylum, guarded by Jemima who eventually helps her escape.

Jane Austen, Fanny in Mansfield Park. Fanny is an impoverished girl who is sent to live with her wealthy Aunt and Uncle, who attempt to marry her off to Henry Crawford, an impressive man of questionable morals. She resists the pressure to do so because of her faith and understanding that the power to “transform” him is beyond her. Eventually she marries a clergyman, Edmund, who has counselled and befriended her.

Anne Brontë, Helen in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Helen discovers her husband Arthur is both alcoholic and adulterous and flees with her young son Arthur, living under an assumed name and supporting them by selling paintings. Her faith will not allow her and her son to live in a state of moral degradation, despite society’s expectation. She falls in love with Gilbert Markham but cannot marry. When Arthur suffers what will be a fatal accident, She returns to for one final attempt at his reform, then marries Gilbert after Arthur’s death.

Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth in Ruth. Ruth is a teenage orphan seduced by Henry Bellingham, then abandoned when she becomes pregnant. A reform minded minister takes her in, they label her a “widow,” and under this identity, she becomes a highly respected governess. Later, Bellingham, using the name Donne, shows up and insists she marry him, but she refuses because of her faith. But her true background is discovered, and she has to turn to nursing the most impoverished, gaining a name for herself. Donne falls ill and comes under her care, and, while caring for him, she contracts his disease and dies.

One of the key themes running through these novels is women refusing or leaving unworthy marriages due to their understanding of the Christian faith, that gives them a sense of agency to stand against the pressures to conform to societal norms. It is also the case that they resist the pressure to adopt the approach that a good woman can reform a bad man. They recognize that only God can transform hearts. In two instances, their resistance is rewarded with loving marriages. Two others end sadly, reflecting the consequences of oppressive structures.

The novelists considered were powerful voices. They reveal a more complex narrative of both ways Christianity has been used to oppress and Christian faith as liberative, of characters empowered by their understanding of Christian faithfulness to resist the “marriage plot” when not to so would implicate them in immoral behavior and subject them to abuse. Victorians spoke of marriage as “he for God only, she for God in him.” Fisher shows the power of Christian faith to lead both men and women to say, “they for God only, he and she for God,” a message which seems as needed today as in the Nineteenth century.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Death Comes to Pemberley

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Death Comes to Pemberley

Death Comes to Pemberley, P. D. James. New York: Vintage Books, 2013

Summary: P.D. James writes a murder mystery as a sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen knock-offs are a cottage industry. Even a former neighbor of ours, Regina Jeffers, has written a whole series of Jane Austen books. Among those to try her hand at this genre is accomplished mystery writer, P.D. James. Over the years, I’ve delighted in her Adam Dalgleish mysteries, and though I’m not among the Austen fans, I thought I’d pick this up.

The story takes up six years into the marriage of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth’s sister Lydia has married George Wickham, childhood friend of Darcy, but is banned from Pemberley after attempting to seduce Darcy’s sister, Georgiana. There has always been something a bit disreputable about Wickham, but he distinguished himself in the Irish rebellion, and since leaving the military has bounced around in different jobs, leaning on family and others for support. It is the day before the annual Lady Anne Ball, the big social event at the Darcy estate. Fitzwilliam Darcy is on hand, hoping to win Georgiana’s hand, even while a newcomer, Mr. Alveston, a lawyer from London, takes the inside track. The whole household is busy at their work, including the elderly servant Bidwell, who refuses to go home to his family living in the forest on the estate, even though his son is declining toward death.

Wickham, Lydia, and Captain Denny, friend of Wickham show up at the Pemberley estate, cutting through the forest. The plan was to leave Lydia at the Darcy house while they went on to an errand. Words arise between Wickham and Captain Denny, who leaves the carriage, plunging into the forest, to be followed shortly by Wickham. Lydia and her driver wait, then hear shots fired. They go to Pemberley for help. A search party finds a drunken and distraught Wickham, covered in blood over the dead body of Captain Denny. His first words were, “He’s dead! Oh God, Denny’s dead! He was my friend, my only friend, and I’ve killed him! I’ve killed him! It’s my fault.”

With this seeming confession, he is taken into custody, awaiting trial for the murder. But Darcy is torn between his dislike for Wickham, and a sense that the words, taken for a confession, might mean something else–that it was Wickham’s quarrel that drove Denny into the hands of his killer, and thus his fault. This is what Wickham, when he comes to his senses maintains. But who this murderer could be and how it was done remains unclear as Wickham goes to trial, defended by the able Jeremiah Mickledore.

It is my impression that James captures the manners and maneuverings that characterize the country houses in Austen, and the affection between Darcy and Elizabeth, such that those who love this genre will be at home. Yet I suspect this is neither the best Austen nor the best James. We barely know Captain Denny before he is killed. I did not feel strongly drawn to any of the characters and only rooted for Wickham because Darcy didn’t want him to be convicted. There is little in the way of a murder investigation and the plot relies on an eleventh hour confession.

As far as I can tell, this was the last work completed by James in her lifetime, when she was in her nineties (she died in 2014). It does not rival her Children of Men or the best of her Dalgleish stories. It is a pleasant diversion and was considered worth of a PBS Masterpiece adaptation in 2014. And it allowed James the satisfaction of having written a Jane Austen novel.