Comments on: Mark Twain made ‘em laugh: an edited extract from Susannah Fullerton’s Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia

By: LiteraryMinded

LiteraryMinded — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:24:37 +0000

Hi Susannah,

my comment moderation did something weird to your comment. I’m sorry it took so long to appear! Thanks again for your words,

Angela

By: susannah fullerton

susannah fullerton — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:29:20 +0000

Damon, I really hope you enjoy my book. Australians who read it are learning a lot that they didn’t know about writers who came here.
Twain said that any library was a good library if it did not have Jane Austen’s books in it, but he also said that ‘whenever he read Jane Austen he wanted to dig her up and beat her over the head with her own shinbone. But, you note, he did keep going back to her books. Something drew him to them, even if he didn’t like to admit it. I love Twain, but I agree that he was rather myopic when it came to the superb Jane!
Happy Reading!, Susannah

By: Grog

Grog — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:22:06 +0000

Sounds great Angela – a good one for a present I think (a present from me to me! )

By: Damon

Damon — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:24:52 +0000

This looks excellent – thanks, Angela (and Susannah). I’ll look for it at Readings.

As JAS President, I wonder what Susannah makes of Twain on Austen. (Funny but myopic, to my mind.)