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 earlier this week as the birth of the royal baby.
The announcement marked âa brilliant day for women,â 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 Guardianâs Web site assailing the quotation chosen for the note, which will begin circulating in 2017, as a âblunder.â
The words âI declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!â Mr. Mullen pointed out, were actually spoken by Caroline Bingley, a minxy conniver who sidles up to Mr. Darcy in âPride and Prejudiceâ and merely pretends to read a book in order to impress him.
âDuplicated many million times on the banknote will be a line in praise of reading that, comically, could only be used by someone who didnât mean a word of it,â Mr. Mullan wrote. âTime for a campaign to use a different quotation?â
Mr. Mullanâs post drew hundreds of comments, including some suggesting alternatives, like Elizabeth Bennetâs âWhat are men to rocks and mountains?â or âWhims and consistencies do divert me.â (Dear readers: any better ideas?)
But other commenters made a backhanded defense of the Bank of Englandâs choice. âCaroline Bingleyâs crass materialism is a perfect fit for a bank note â" the ultimate symbol of crass materialism,â one commenter wrote. âAnd, 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.â