Jane Austen Bank Note Earns Huzzahs and Nitpicking

Reuters The Jane Austen £10 note is scheduled to be issued in 2017.

The news that Jane Austen would become only the third woman, besides Queen Elizabeth II, to appear on a British bank note drew almost as many huzzahs this week as the birth of the royal baby.

The announcement signified “a brilliant day for women,” Caroline Criado-Perez, the feminist blogger who helped start the petition drive to add a woman to British currency, told The Guardian.

But now, the nitpicking has begun. On Thursday, John Mullan, a professor of English at University College London, wrote a blog post on the Guardian’s Web site assailing the quotation chosen for the note, which will begin circulating in 2017, as a “blunder.”

The words “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Mr. Mullen pointed out, were actually spoken by Caroline Bingley, a minxy conniver who sidles up to Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice” and merely pretends to read a book to impress him.

“Duplicated many million times on the bank note will be a line in praise of reading that, comically, could only be used by someone who didn’t mean a word of it,” Mr. Mullan wrote. “Time for a campaign to use a different quotation?”

Mr. Mullan’s post drew hundreds of comments, including some suggesting alternatives, like Elizabeth Bennet’s “What are men to rocks and mountains?” or “Whims and consistencies do divert me.” (Dear readers: Any better ideas?)

But others in their comments made a backhanded defense of the Bank of England’s choice. “Caroline Bingley’s crass materialism is a perfect fit for a bank note â€" the ultimate symbol of crass materialism,” one wrote. “And, just as Caroline Bingley cannot appreciate the real worth of books, so is the case with cash money which, much like Caroline, puts a value on everything but knows the worth of nothing.”