Description
Book SynopsisIn Jane Austen's works, a name is never just a name. In fact, the names Austen gives her characters and places are as rich in subtle meaning as her prose itself. The author offers a comprehensive study of all the names of people and places - real and imaginary. It offers a fresh understanding of Austen's technique of creative anachronism.
Trade Review"A brilliant, provocative, and important book. Doody has marshaled a truly unprecedented array of narrative material regarding names, places, and plotting culled from a dazzlingly expansive reading of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century novels-as well as books on aesthetics, local history, and the English countryside. The result is a uniquely illuminating and enjoyable book that teaches us to think about Austen's artistry in a undamentally new way." (Claudia L. Johnson, uthor of Jane Austen's Cults and Cultures)
Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments A Note on Texts Part I. England Chapter 1. Words, Names, Persons, and Places Chapter 2. Names as History: Invasion, Migration, War, and Conflict Chapter 3. Civil War, Ruins, and the Conscience of the Rich Part II. Names Chapter 4. Naming People: First Names, Nicknames, Titles, and Rank Chapter 5. Titles, Status, and Surnames: Austen's Great Surname Matrix Chapter 6. Personal Names (First Names and Surnames) in the "Steventon" Novels Chapter 7. Personal Names in the "Chawton" Novels Part III. Places Chapter 8. Humans Making and Naming a Landscape Chapter 9. Placing the Places Chapter 10. Counties, Towns, Villages, Estates: Real and Imaginary Places in the "Steventon" Novels Chapter 11. Real and Imaginary Places in the "Chawton" Novels Conclusion Notes Index
