blown up) to be effectively punctured, when it explodes with a little bang. We are not to be puzzled or teased by subtle meanings; the sentences do not shimmer in midair, demanding our sustained attention. Austen's sentences are more like icicles or prisms; they do not balloon and bang.
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The demotion of elegance in Weldon, the eschewal of certain kinds of subtlety, the delight in violencethese qualities are very far from what we think of as Austen's, and make Weldon a surprising choice as the dramatizer of
Pride and Prejudice
for the 1980s television production. Surprising, but not boringWeldon's product was memorable, unlike some of the dusty and pulverized versions of novels offered on British telly. Her product was in some ways refreshingjust as it would be refreshing to have Mark Twain dramatize Nathaniel Hawthorne. Or what about getting François Rabelais to dramatize Chrétien de Troyes?
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Rabelais, once he has come to mind, offers some happy comparisons. Weldon's physical comedy, and her sentences that turn onor turn tothe physicalhave much in common with the manner and meanings of Rabelais. Here is a typical passage of Rabelaisian description:
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 | | Panurge estoit de stature moyenne, ny trop grand, ny trop petit, et avoit le nez un peu aquilin, faict à manche de rasouer; et pour lors estoit de l'eage de trente et cinq ans ou environ, fin à dorer comme une dague de plomb, bien galand homme de sa personne, sinon qu'il estoit quelque peu paillard, et subject de nature à une maladie qu'on appelloit en ce temps-la "Faulte d'argent, c'est douleur non pareille"toutesfoys, il avoit soixante et troys manières d'en trouver tousjours à son besoing, dont la plus honnorable et la plus commune estoit par façon de larrecin furtivement faict ... [
Pantagruel,
ch. xvi, p. 280]
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| | Panurge was of middling height, neither too large nor too small, and his nose was a little aquiline, shaped like the handle of a razor. And at that time he was thirty-five years old or thereabouts, a youth as gilded as a leaden dagger, a very gallant man in his person, save that he was somewhat horny, and subject by nature to a malady which folks in those days called "Lack of money, a pain without equal." But he always had sixty-three ways to find what he needed, of which the most honorable and the most common was by act of larceny furtively carried out ...
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Here is a passage of description from (early) Weldon:
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| | Victor is six foot two and weighs fourteen stone. He is a powerful man with a high domed head, and a smooth bald patch, flanked by downy hair, running up and over it, like some spiritual landing strip (Elsa's fancy) for flights of mature imagination. His soft brown eyes are deep set; his nose is long and hooked; his penis is long and sturdy, easily moved to stand erect. No trouble there. No trouble anywhere, except for the occasional cold in the nose or a white-capped pimple erupting on his chin, the better to display his inner juiciness. (
Little Sisters,
p. 8)
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