A biographer of Jane Austen has accused the Bank of England of making the author look “dim-witted” in its choice of portrait for the new 10-pound note.
“Jane Austen is the funniest writer to walk this planet, and she’s been made to look dim-witted,” said Paula Byrne, author of The Real Jane Austen. “I can’t believe they have gone for such a saccharine picture. Jane Austen was a supreme social satirist, and some of her writing was quite dark, but they’ve chosen a picture that makes her look a really cozy, middle-class writer.”
Byrne said, “I think it is brilliant that she’s on the note, it’s just that it would have been better to show her as much more spiky, rather than suggest that she was a saccharine writer.”
She said the bank should have used an original sketch of the author, by her sister Cassandra. This is the only known picture done during her lifetime, and shows the author sitting arms folded and without a flicker of a smile.
The portrait used on the 10-pound note was done in 1870, more than 50 years after Austen’s death, and is based on the earlier sketch. It was commissioned to illustrate a memoir by Austen’s nephew, James Edward Austen Leigh, but Byrne said even Austen’s remaining family said it was not a proper likeness.
(Liberty Times)
替英國知名作家珍．奧斯汀撰寫傳記的一位作家指控英格蘭銀行在替十英鎊新鈔選擇奧斯汀肖像時，讓她看起來很「愚蠢」。
「珍．奧斯汀是全世界最風趣的作家，而她卻被畫成一副蠢相，」《真正的珍．奧斯汀》一書作者伯恩表示。「我真不敢相信他們竟然會選出這幅遭到過度美化的畫像。珍．奧斯汀是一流的社會諷刺家，她有些作品甚至非常黑暗，但他們卻選了一張畫像，讓她看起來像是生活優渥的中產階級作家。」
伯恩表示：「我認為把她的肖像印在鈔票上非常棒，但如果能讓她看起來更尖銳，而非暗示她是個粉飾太平的作家會更好。」
她認為英格蘭銀行應當使用奧斯汀姊姊卡珊卓替她畫的肖像。這是奧斯汀生前留下唯一的一幅已知畫像，畫中奧斯汀雙臂交疊，臉上沒有一絲笑意。
被印製十英鎊鈔票上的畫像則是完成於一八七０年，當時奧斯汀已過世逾五十年，而且是以一幅較早的素描為藍本。這幅肖像是為奧斯汀外甥詹姆斯．艾德華．奧斯汀．雷所撰寫的回憶錄所繪製，但伯恩說，就連奧斯汀當時仍在世的家人也認為這幅肖像並不像奧斯汀本人。
（自由時報／翻譯：俞智敏）
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