I am very much obliged to you for sending your MS. It has entertained
me extremely; all of us indeed. I read it aloud, and we were all very
much pleased. The spirit does not droop at all. … I like the name ‘Which
is the Heroine’ very well, and I daresay shall grow to like it very much
in time; but ‘Enthusiasm’ was something so very superior that my common
title must appear to disadvantage.
—Jane Austen
(Okay, Jane Austen didn’t actually write that about this novel
called Enthusiasm. Her niece Anna had sent Aunt Jane the manuscript of
a novel Anna was writing, which she called Enthusiasm, a title Aunt Jane
preferred to her own suggestion: Which is the Heroine. I discovered this
when I decided Enthusiasm would be a good title for my book and googled
“Jane Austen Enthusiasm” to make sure nobody had already used it.I thought
about using Jane Austen’s title suggestion as a subtitle—Enthusiasm:
or, Which Is the Heroine?—but my editor sensibly talked me out of it.
You can read Jane Austen’s advice to Anna here: http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablt16.html
Every writer needs an Aunt Jane to tell her, “I do not perceive that the
language sinks. Pray go on.”)
