JANE AUSTEN'S STANDARDS
Sta,—In your issue of July 23rd there is an interesting review—under the title Warring Critics—of four recent books. While I entirely agree with your reviewer that one should not judge a novel by one's acceptance or otherwise of its author's beliefs, I should be fascinated to know how he arrived at the example which he takes to illustrate his theme.
Jane Austen, he says, " clearly thought that every girl can be made happy by £10,000 a year and a handsome equipage." But clearly she believed nothing of the kind. Charlotte Lucas, it is true, accepts with alacrity the prospect of a financially secure but loveless marriage, and Mrs. Elton regards her sister's barouche-landau as the ultimate sign of success ; but we are left in no doubt as to Elizabeth Bennet's reaction to the first viewpoint nor Emma Woodhouse's to the second, and in both cases it is patently clear that her heroines' views are Jane Austen's
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