Tag Archives: Mansfield Park

Jane Austen’s Thematic Use of Cards

By Robin Bates | Published: March 13, 2024

In which I share a talk I will be giving on the thematic significance of card playing in Jane Austen’s novels.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged card playing, Emma, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sanditon, Sense and Sensibility | Comments closed

Alas, Poor Twitter–I Knew Him, Ho-Ratio

By Robin Bates | Published: October 30, 2022

Literary allusions have been flying, many with a sense of doom, since Elon Musk purchased Twitter.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Elon Musk, Hamlet, Henry VI Part 2, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Samuel Beckett, Sense and Sensibility, twitter, Waiting for Godot, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Lit Steels Spines in Face of Pressure

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2021

One answer to how Austen’s Fanny Price resists the unrelenting family pressure to marry Crawford: she has read Richardson’s “Clarissa.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Clarissa, Family, Jane Austen, Marriage, Samuel Richardson | Comments closed

Austen’s Mixed Feelings about Gothics

By Robin Bates | Published: March 17, 2021

An exploration of Jane Austen’s mixed feelings about the gothic–and about lightweight lit.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Ann Radcliffe, Feminism, Jane Austen, lightweight literature, Mysteries of Udolpho, Northanger Abbey, paranoia, Persuasion, Sanditon, Sense and Sensibility | Comments closed

Does Lightweight Lit Do Damage?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 1, 2021

I look at how thinkers over the centuries have viewed so-called popular or lightweight literature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alexander Pope, Dunciad, Feminism, Frankfurt School, Frederick Engels, Herbert Marcuse, Jaws, John Dryden, Karl Marx, lightweight literature, Lovers' Vows, Northanger Abbey, Percy Shelley, Persuasion, Peter Benchley, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Terry Eagleton, W.E.B. Du Bois, Wayne Booth | Comments closed

Sanditon’s Disappointing Ending

By Robin Bates | Published: February 26, 2020

While filled with allusions to the previous novels, the televised “Sanditon” is in the end a let-down. I explore why.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged adaptations, Emma, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sanditon, Sense and Sensibility | Comments closed

Playing Cards at an Austen Event

By Robin Bates | Published: October 27, 2019

The game Speculation in Austen’s “Mansfield Park” captured the spirit of the age and reenacted many of the relationship dramas.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Around the World in 80 Days, card playing, Jane Austen, Jules Verne, Speculation | Comments closed

The Dreadful Sound of Trump (not that one)

By Robin Bates | Published: August 20, 2019

Wednesday On Monday I hosted what proved to be a lovely luncheon (an onion tart, ratatouille, and a trifle) for Vanderbilt University Librarian Valerie Hotchkiss, who was in Sewanee to discuss a presentation I will be giving at the university on the card game Speculation. Jane Austen fans will recognize it as the game played […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Cock-Crowing", "Second Coming", "On the Cards and Dice", Cards, D. H. Lawrence, games, Henry Vaughan, Jane Austen, Jesus, Man Who Died, Resurrection, Sir Walter Raleigh | Comments closed

Austen: Standing Up to Harassers

By Robin Bates | Published: January 3, 2018

Jane Austen has powerful lessons for those battling systemic sexism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Jane Austen, MeToo, Pride and Prejudice, sexual harassment | Comments closed