Jane Austen's Names: Riddles, Persons, Places

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Jane Austen took a particular delight in the resonance of names, and in her novels she used the names of people and places as a potential source of meaning, satirical or historical. Margaret Doody s book is a learned and enjoyable investigation of this aspect of Austen s art. Doody tells us that Austen preferred first names in common and traditional English use, though these sometimes acquire a subtly new flavor in her works. Austen also favored the names of saints and of royalty, but she did use some classically derived pagan names, always with a purpose. And Austen would signal political loyalties and allegiances in her novels through the use of names, both first names and last names, as well as place names. In exploring Austen s names and their connotations, Doody has a larger point to make. By uncovering the riddling and punning in Austen s names, as well as Austen s interest in history, Doody casts Austen as a decidedly earthy writer steeped in the particulars of place and time, rather than a timeless novelist writing in an abstemious style. From this attention to names in her work emerges a picture of Austen that is both fuller than we ve had before, and controversial.