A Note From Bob
The stone that never mentioned her books
Tuesday. This very week in 1817, mourners carried Jane Austen into Winchester Cathedral and laid a stone over her grave praising "the extraordinary endowments of her mind," yet it never mentioned that she had written a single book. It didn't need to say what her readers didn't know: in her lifetime, her title pages said only "By a Lady." Today's featured quiz is devoted to the Lady herself. Pour the coffee.
Trivia Question of the Day
In 1797, a London publisher rejected a young Jane Austen's manuscript sight unseen. Sixteen years later it became Pride and Prejudice. What was its original title?
The answer is at the bottom of this email.
Today's Featured Quiz
Jane Austen
The parson's daughter who observed her world with a sharper eye than anyone in it. The six novels, the anonymous title pages, the small desk in the family sitting room, and the quiet life behind the most quotable openings in English literature. 15 questions.
The Answer
First Impressions
When Jane's father offered the manuscript to publisher Thomas Cadell in 1797, it came back by return of post, unread. She kept revising, and in 1813 the world finally met it as Pride and Prejudice. Writers who fought their own battles to be read fill today's second quiz, and 30 more questions are waiting for you.
On This Day
On this day in 1899, Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He drove an ambulance in one world war, reported on another, and pared American prose down to the bone along the way, earning the Nobel Prize in 1954. He's exactly the kind of company you'll keep in today's second quiz. Test yourself with 30 questions on history's literary heroes.
Stay
Curious.
Bob
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