The novel needs no introduction. But readers may not have realised that
we have been losing “Pride and Prejudice” over the years, particularly
digitally. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation have eroded significantly from
the 1813 Egerton first edition, and many digital copies suffer from poor
formatting.
In 2017, the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, her “darling
Child” has been painstakingly restored to the three-volume 1813 first edition.
Adjustments have only been made where there were errors in the 1813 text, and
are noted in detailed annotations at the end of the novel.
Please enjoy this beloved story, restored to Jane Austen’s original voice.
I am thrilled today to be part of the blog tour for Sophie Turner's new book, Pride and Prejudice (Restored). My thanks also goes to Claudine Pepe for inviting me to take part in this tour.
Thank you so much for hosting me here at Laughing
With Lizzie! I’m really excited to share this project with readers, and
particularly to share some excerpts, as these show why it was necessary to
create a restored edition of Pride and
Prejudice, taking it back to the grammar, spelling, and punctuation of the
1813 edition, save errors.
One of the biggest things that had eroded was
commas, which you can see in my “before” copy, the Republic of Pemberley’s
online text, vs. the “after” edited version.
Before:
The ladies were somewhat more fortunate, for they had the
advantage of ascertaining from an upper window that he wore a blue coat, and
rode a black horse.
After:
The ladies were somewhat
more fortunate, for they had the advantage of ascertaining from an upper
window, that he wore a blue coat and rode a black horse.
Before:
"If my children are silly, I must hope to be always
sensible of it."
After:
“If my children are
silly I must hope to be always sensible of it.”
Jane Austen had a very particular timing with her
commas, and her sentences tend to suffer when we shift the comma to the
“modern” location, as shown above. They also suffer when inserted to interrupt
the flow of her light prose, as in the below examples.
Before:
"You began
the evening well, Charlotte," said Mrs. Bennet, with civil self-command,
to Miss Lucas. "You were Mr.
Bingley's first choice."
After:
“You
began the evening well, Charlotte,” said Mrs. Bennet with civil self-command to
Miss Lucas. “You were Mr. Bingley’s
first choice.”
Before:
She would not listen, therefore, to her daughter's
proposal of being carried home; neither did the apothecary, who arrived about
the same time, think it at all advisable.
After:
She would not listen
therefore to her daughter’s proposal of being carried home; neither did the
apothecary, who arrived about the same time, think it at all advisable.
Before:
"I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be
so easily seen through, I am afraid, is pitiful."
After:
“I wish I might take
this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through I am afraid is
pitiful.”
Before:
Not yet, however, in spite of her disappointment in her
husband, did Mrs. Bennet give up the point. She talked to Elizabeth again and
again; coaxed and threatened her by turns. She endeavoured to secure Jane in
her interest; but Jane, with all possible mildness, declined interfering; and
Elizabeth, sometimes with real earnestness, and sometimes with playful gaiety,
replied to her attacks. Though her manner varied, however, her determination
never did.
After:
Not yet, however, in
spite of her disappointment in her husband, did Mrs. Bennet give up the point.
She talked to Elizabeth again and again; coaxed and threatened her by turns.
She endeavoured to secure Jane in her interest, but Jane with all possible
mildness declined interfering;—and Elizabeth sometimes with real earnestness
and sometimes with playful gaiety replied to her attacks. Though her manner
varied however, her determination never did.
The last example shows that there were often
multiple instances of punctuation that needed to be corrected, even within one
sentence. Austen often used mdashes in conjunction with other punctuation, and
these often tended to get “lost” from digital editions, or formatted as double
hyphens, as shown below, where the punctuation should not even be any sort of
dash, but instead a comma leading into the dialogue, which Austen very
frequently used.
Before:
About
the middle of the next day, as she was in her room getting ready for the walk,
a sudden noise below seemed to speak the whole house in confusion; and, after
listening a moment, she heard somebody running up stairs in a violent hurry,
and calling loudly after her. She opened the door and met Maria in the
landing-place, who, breathless with agitation, cried out --
"Oh,
my dear Eliza! pray make haste and come into the dining-room, for there is such
a sight to be seen! I will not tell you what it is. Make haste, and come down
this moment."
After
“About the middle of the
next day, as she was in her room getting ready for a walk, a sudden noise below
seemed to speak the whole house in confusion; and after listening a moment, she
heard somebody running up stairs in a violent hurry, and calling loudly after
her. She opened the door, and met Maria in the landing place, who, breathless
with agitation, cried out,
“Oh, my dear Eliza! pray
make haste and come into the dining-room, for there is such a sight to be seen!
I will not tell you what it is. Make haste, and come down this moment.”
Here is another instance of improperly formatted
and missing dashes, and I think it begins to show how this not only diminishes
Austen’s voice, but also degrades the experience for the reader, to not have
nice, clean punctuation. It’s also a great example of misplaced commas; with
the commas restored you can see Austen’s true rhythm of prose.
Before:
On his quitting the room she sat down, unable to support
herself, and looking so miserably ill that it was impossible for Darcy to leave
her, or to refrain from saying, in a tone of gentleness and commiseration,
"Let me call your maid. Is there nothing you could take to give you
present relief? A glass of wine; -- shall I get you one? You are very
ill."
After:
On his quitting the
room, she sat down, unable to support herself, and looking so miserably ill,
that it was impossible for Darcy to leave her, or to refrain from saying, in a
tone of gentleness and commiseration, “Let me call your maid. Is there nothing
you could take, to give you present relief?—A glass of wine;—shall I get you
one?—You are very ill.”
There were also a vast number of instances where
commas were substituted for semicolons, or vice versa, as shown in the next
example. Austen was decidedly not afraid of using a semicolon, but again there is
a certain rhythm to how she uses them. And you can see again a number of
instances of commas out of place.
Before:
The good news quickly spread through the house, and with proportionate speed
through the neighbourhood. It was borne in the latter with decent philosophy.
To be sure, it would have been more for the advantage of conversation had Miss
Lydia Bennet come upon the town; or, as the happiest alternative, been secluded
from the world, in some distant farm house. But there was much to be talked of in
marrying her; and the good-natured wishes of her well-doing which had proceeded
before from all the spiteful old ladies in Meryton, lost but little of their
spirit in this change of circumstances, because with such an husband her misery
was considered certain.
After:
The good news quickly spread through the house; and with proportionate speed
through the neighbourhood. It was borne in the latter with decent philosophy.
To be sure it would have been more for the advantage of conversation, had Miss
Lydia Bennet come upon the town; or, as the happiest alternative, been secluded
from the world, in some distant farm house. But there was much to be talked of,
in marrying her; and the good-natured wishes for her well-doing, which had
proceeded before, from all the spiteful old ladies in Meryton, lost but little
of their spirit in this change of circumstances, because with such an husband,
her misery was considered certain.
I hope this and my other excerpt posts along the
blog tour will give readers an understanding of why I felt doing the restored
edition was necessary. These differences may be subtle, but as I wrote in the
forward, over time, they eroded Austen’s voice. For the 200th anniversary of
her death, I wanted to give her that voice back.
Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo
Sophie Turner worked as
an online editor before delving even more fully into the tech world. Writing,
researching the Regency era, and occasionally dreaming about living in Britain
are her escapes from her day job.
She was afraid of long
series until she ventured upon Patrick O’Brian’s 20-book Aubrey-Maturin
masterpiece, something she might have repeated five times through.
Alas, her Constant Love
series is only planned to be seven books right now, and consists of A Constant
Love, A Change of Legacies, and the in-progress A Season Lost.
She blogs about her
writing endeavours at sophie-turner-acl.blogspot.com, where readers can find direction for
the various social drawing-rooms across the Internet where she may be called
upon.
** GIVEAWAY - ends Wednesday 20th September **
Sophie has been kind enough to offer a giveaway of an ebook copy of her story, open internationally.
Please leave a comment for a chance to win. The giveaway ends on 20th September. I will be in touch with the winner, so please leave your email in your comment. The very best of luck!
My thanks again goes to Sophie for this interesting explanation about her restoration of a most beloved novel! My thanks also to Claudine for setting up this tour.
Blog Tour Schedule
