The Content Reader

After finishing Jane Austen and Food   it was time to get on with Maggie Lane’s Jane Austen and Names . Names have a special meaning to most of us, and mostly names mean more than just the name itself. In this study, Maggie Lane has looked at an area which has not been given much attention. She looks at the history of English names up to Jane Austen’s time and the pattern of giving names in society, and the way Jane Austen uses names that fits the personality of her characters, as well as their place in society. Unlike most novelists of her period, Jane Austen used names found in everyday life. Sometimes she uses a name to explain the characteristics; “Her Charlottes are usually clear-eyed pragmatists and her Henrys are rarely without charm. More often, characters given the same name have nothing in common at all. In one novel Fanny might be a despicable, mercenary snob, and in another the timid, tender-hearted heroine. George Wickham and George Knightley are morally worlds ap...