Madwoman in the third storey; P&P no sell

From Curiosities of Literature by John Sutherland

"In the Attic" -- a Vulgar Error

Flowers in the Attic, like the influential feminist literary-critical treatise, The Madwoman in the Attic (1979), by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gilbert draw, in their separate ways, on the supposed incarceration of Bertha Mason (the first Mrs. Rochester) in the attic of Thornfield. The image has become emblematic of the historical oppression of woman. In fact, as Michael Mason points out in his 1996 edition of Jane Eyre, "This is, strictly speaking, an error, since Bertha Rochester is locked up on the third storey of Thornfield Hall, and there is a "garrett" or "attic" floor above.' Long live strictness.

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A few months later, David Lassman, mischievous director of the Bath Jane Austen festival, sent out the opening chapters of P&P for eighteen leading publishers. Austen's golden prose was barely veiled under the novel's family title, 'First Impressions', as by 'Alison Laydee' (i.e., "A Lady"), with minimal name changes and the famous 'truth universally acknowledged' opening sentence resoundingly intact.

It resounded not at all. Seventeen of the recipients did not recognize the most essential book in the history of the world. One, Boomsbury (Harry Potter's publisher), wrote back with the sage consolation that the sample had been read 'with interest' but 'was not suited to our list'. They could clearly live without Pride and Prejudice, thank you very much.

Why not, if they've got Harry Potter on the Bloomsbury list?