The tiny details that drive you nuts.
I stumbled upon The Family Fortune quite by happenstance. It wasn't even until I'd gotten home from the library that I realized it was a modern day twist on Persuasion. I enjoyed it very much. It follows JA's version very well, so if you're one who doesn't like it when modern takes deviate too much, you'll appreciate the faithfulness of Laurie Horowitz's version.
The thing is, there's just one wee bit thing about the book that's been driving me batty. I was happily reading along when, bam! Jane (the "Anne") went back to her alma mater, which also happens to be my alma mater, and met with the "Dean of the English Department."
You might think me crazy, but it really bothers me that she met with the Dean. Why? Because the school doesn't have deans for their academic departments; they have chairs. (At the very least, refer to them as "heads.") Deans, on the other hand, are reserved for administrative offices: Dean of the College, Dean of Student Life, Dean of Admissions, Dean of the individual class years, etc. You get the point.
It just seems like such an easy fact to check, I don't know why the author didn't bother. (A cursory search of the school's website would inform a person that academic departments are headed by chairs.) I will allow that perhaps the author wasn't aware that most schools' academic departments aren't headed by a dean, and yet . . . that kind of boggles me too because I can't think of any school that refers to them as any title other than a chair.
Poll
The thing is, there's just one wee bit thing about the book that's been driving me batty. I was happily reading along when, bam! Jane (the "Anne") went back to her alma mater, which also happens to be my alma mater, and met with the "Dean of the English Department."
You might think me crazy, but it really bothers me that she met with the Dean. Why? Because the school doesn't have deans for their academic departments; they have chairs. (At the very least, refer to them as "heads.") Deans, on the other hand, are reserved for administrative offices: Dean of the College, Dean of Student Life, Dean of Admissions, Dean of the individual class years, etc. You get the point.
It just seems like such an easy fact to check, I don't know why the author didn't bother. (A cursory search of the school's website would inform a person that academic departments are headed by chairs.) I will allow that perhaps the author wasn't aware that most schools' academic departments aren't headed by a dean, and yet . . . that kind of boggles me too because I can't think of any school that refers to them as any title other than a chair.
Poll