What's New? Results 1 to 12 of I hope this is the right place for it. Anyway, why does Austen and other 18th cent authors blank out words, especially places? Two examples: "she had never heard of him before his entrance into the -shire Militia" "the ladies set out together from Gracechurch street for the town of - in Hertfordshire" Why would she blank out some names but leave others in there?
Thanks for your help,. Then we sat on the edge of the earth, with our feet dangling over the side, and marvelled that we had found each other. For instance, she mentions London and Brighton, which are both real places. I also have noticed that some, particularly classic, authors keep the names of towns or less relevant characters anonymous. I usually assumed that the famous town of "-" and "-shire," in novels is imaginary, and, perhaps, omitted in case there actually is a town by that name.
The main reason I have heard was that they did not want to look ignorant about the location if there were errors these were the days before the internet and fast transport, and I guess there were only so many stories they could set in their hometown.
It could have also protected them from libel if they had based their characters on real people although I am just speculating now. And I guess it kept the story general, rather than only relevant to those from a specific region. Would love to hear any other reasons people have heard though! I have seen this in other books from that period too, not only English ones. Sometimes it's done for names of people too. For example, "Count B". I always guessed that these were references to actual people.
Jan 28, AM. Jan 28, PM. Wouldn't it just have been easier to change the name? No matter. It was interesting to see this thread because I thought it just happened to by an error in the ebook version.
Charlotte Bronte did this too. For example, in Jane Eyre Mrs. Jan 29, PM. Newest Questions Post a Question Search All Questions Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources.
Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims. Archived Questions Goto Qn. In Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' why are some place names called "shire"?
Datsmeharse Answer has 3 votes. Datsmeharse 13 year member replies Answer has 3 votes. Shires are counties. Yorkshire is the county which includes the city of York for instance.
It is close to the larger village of Meryton, which is also in Hertfordshire. When they talk of a different area in the book, they leave it as "-shire. I noticed that, too, especially in Jane Eyre. They actually wrote shire, with a blank in front of shire. I mean, it's fiction! Why couldn't they make up a complete name? Thank you for the replies. It was just one of those things that was bothering me not knowing, lol. All counties in England originally have 'shire' at the end of the name.
Ie Dorset where I'm from! Some of them Yorkshire for example have survived with the 'shire' part intact. As far as Victorian novels go, I think it was more along the lines of not identifying the actual part of the country, partly to preserve the fiction that they were talking about real events in the book and to identify the area would mean you could identify the people, and partly because they were so overly careful with the proprieties.
You know, 'names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved' kind of thing. You'll often find it with names too.
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