Why does Jane Austen include intentional blanks or "-----" in some
places in Mansfield Park (and perhaps other novels)? For example, at
the beginning of Chapter 6 (Vol. I), "Mr. Bertram set off for -----,
and Miss Crawford was prepared to find a great chasm in their
society...." This "blank" consistently appears in many editions I have
referred to. She puts this for other people and places in a few places
in the novel. I could not find an explanation in the Norton Edition
(which has footnotes).

Hi macromicromini:

Thanks for the very interesting question!

The only explanation of this "trick" of Ms. Austen's that I was able
to find meshed with my own opinion:

CliffsNotes - Literature & Poetry Answer Archive 
URL: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-110142.html#literature12
Quote: "Why are there blanks in place of people's names and places in
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice?
Jane Austen wrote about the world and the society she knew, and she
sometimes left blank spaces in her work essentially to cover her butt.
By not naming names, she avoided being accused of inaccuracy or of
making someone (usually a politician) look bad. Also, by using blank
spaces, her readers could add whatever names they wanted for a
personalized story."

Search Strategy (on Google):
* "Mr. Bertram set off for"
* "jane austen" "leaves blank"
* "jane austen" "left blank"
* "jane austen" "blank spaces"
* "jane austen" "naming names"
* "jane austen" blanks

I hope this helps.

websearcher

---

Request for Answer Clarification by macromicromini-ga on 14 May 2005 19:44 PDT

Thank you (and for your speed as well)-- but do you have an additional
source for where Cliff's might have found that out? Often Cliff's or
Spark Notes give interesting explanations, but because they don't give
a credible or scholarly source; I can't really cite that.

---

Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 15 May 2005 06:15 PDT

Hi macromicromini:

Thanks for the clarification requestion. 

I've spent some more time on this search for you - it's a real tough
one! Here's all the other places I found mention of this technique:

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
URL: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/forum/viewforum.php?forum_id=306&since=20050313
Quote: "By anchoring the book in a real place and manipulating small
details and creating characters (also based off of real people,
Middlesex was based off of Herculine Barbin) it seems more realistic,
more believable. Herculine Barbin, on the other hand, seems less
believable, even though it is a memoir. I understand that leaving
places nameless or denoting them with an X or such was a stylistic
choice from earlier times (I know it si done in Jane Eyre? I think
Austen does it as well) but, for me, it made the book more real to
have entire names, especially ones that were familiar."

Why all those blanks?
URL: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/blanks.html
Quote: "On 15 February 2002, Margaret Sheils wrote with the following
query: "I am currently reading Jane Eyre (2nd ed.), and I have no one
else to ask. Are the references to _____shire, something the editors
or author left blank? All throughout chapter X this omission occurs.
GPL: This is standard eighteenth- and nineteenth-century practice to
create a sense of realism: the author leaves out the name of the
country or person, thus pretending it is a real one and that he or she
does not wish to intrude upon the privacy of real people."

I know these quotes are not extremely "scholarly", but it was the best
I could do. I tried dozens and dozens of different search criteria.

websearcher

After clarification this was exactly what I wanted and the response
was well qualified and specific. I appreciated multiple sources
suplied and indeed, ultimately the research did come from reputable
palces. Thanks!

I am currently reading "Scarlet and Black" by Stendhal (a pseudonym
for Marie-Henri Beyle).

This is also littered with what appear to be random blanks.  A quote
from Encarta explains why the blanks may have been inserted by M.
Beyle - "Others see in Stendhal a realist who depicts with detailed
accuracy the historical reality surrounding the activities of his main
characters. Le rouge et le noir is set during the Bourbon restoration
and is often read for its exact depiction of the historical moment."
this is obviously copyright Microsoft Encarta.

This shows that, writing about contemporaneous events made this
practice a necessity.