The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128187 Message #2869749
Posted By: MGM·Lion
23-Mar-10 - 12:38 AM
Thread Name: Child Ballads as Mastermind subject (BBC2)
Subject: RE: Child Ballads as Mastermind subject (BBC2)
Thread drift alert!!
I found the questions themselves quite interesting. One was 'How many numbered Child Ballads are there' and I would think that would be a gift for anyone claiming Child Ballads as a specialist subject, akin to asking someone answering questions on "The Life and Times of Jane Austin" how many books she published ========= Not, in fact, such a simple question at that. Jane AustEn's extensive juvenilia have been published by Oxford, ed Chapman, in 3 volumes; including at least one, 'Catherine, or The Bower', which could be regarded as at least a nearly completed full novel ~~ the topic, BTW, of my late wife's Mature State Scholarship essay which gained her entrance to Cambridge in 1963. Of JA's six mature novels, the first 'Northanger Abbey', and the last 'Persuasion' [unrevised at her death] were published posthumously in one volume.
So, DMcG, how many 'books' would you say JA 'published'?
Sorry if this appears as an example of my 'legendary pedantry', as a friend expressed it on another MessageBoard forum I indulge in. But JA was my semi-final Mastermind subject; &, in addition to the scholarship essay mentioned above, my wife published two books on her: a student's handbook from Blackie in 1980 & a full biography, 'Obstinate Heart' (Michael O'Mara 1997). So it will be appreciated that Jane Austen is a topic near and dear to my ♥ about which I can claim some knowledge. To say nothing of the fact that I consider 'Mansfield Park' the greatest novel ever written!; but that might form the topic of another thread...