Literary question

[eleneariel]

Someone asked me this the other day, and for the life of me I can't remember if I've ever heard a reason for it:

In Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and other writers of the period, why did they often not spell out names of people and towns in full? You know ... talking about going to _____shire, or how Mrs S______ did this or that.

It's driving me nuts that I can't remember.

Comments

[joy-unspeakable.livejournal.com]

From what I remember when I used to spend hours on the Republic of Pemberley website (LOL), this was done to "protect" the real locations/people, without having to make up a completely fictional place name. I have no idea why this became so popular or who started it, though.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/blanks.html

[melyndie.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's what I've heard too! And they can maintain an illusion of realism in their writing by acting as if they are referring to real individuals/places without having to make up someone/something everyone knows it fictional.

[mattiescottage.livejournal.com]

. . . as if they are referring to real individuals/places without having to make up someone/something everyone knows it fictional. . .

Well expressed. That's exactly the point. They don't mean to implicate any region in particular. If they made up a name, it would be like making up the name of a U.S. State; everyone would know it didn't exist.

I have also seen this used by late 19th-century and early 20th century American fiction writers. Most commonly in I see it with the year on a date of a letter embedded within the novel, e.g. 187-. I have supposed the author does not want to pick a certain year out of fear some of the circumstances (weather at certain holidays?) might not hold true for a particular year. Or maybe, where no decade is specified (e.g. 19--) the author means to keep the events timeless?

However, the use of the initials for names in novels is still often a mystery to me. It makes sense to protect a real person, but if it is a novel, why don't they just give the character a name?

If it is in a letter within a novel, well, that makes more sense. Then I assume they mean that the letter writer used initials. I think some people really used initials to save space and handwriting fatigue. (I seem to recall examples of this in William Wilberforce's letters and journals.)

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of the above--it's interesting though that, at least in P&P, Austen gives us Derbyshire and Hertfordshire, and even Kent as places where Darcy, the Bennets, and Lady Catherine live. The place when she does use a blank is for the _______shire militia--Wickham's regiment.

[mattiescottage.livejournal.com]

Ha-ha! Perhaps she didn't want to offend any particular Shire by burdening it with Mr. Wickham!

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't want to be from the place Wickham resides!

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Good point! I hadn't caught that before. :)

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

That all makes perfect sense. Thank you!

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Um, I kind of got lost for several hours in that website. So much to read!

Thanks for the info!