Jansy Mello writes:

Carolyn Kunin: “ The wonderful John Sutherland…in a lecture on Wuthering Heights says that setting novels back 30 or 40 years from the date of publication became a commonplace called "antedating" in mid-Victorian literature…Mansfield Park of course is pre-Victorian so may have started a trend. I hope to tackle the Cinderella question myself - have located the book by folklorist Marian Roalfe Cox (1892).

Jansy Mello: Great indication [http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/mp.calendar.html ] and comment.  Thanks Carolyn! V.Nabokov’s lectures are precious to me but, at least at present, I’m not as overwhelmed by the application of his theories to Jane Austen as I usually am (I can feel his effort to please Edmund Wilson by accepting to include Austen in his literary pantheon.) I’m finding it very difficult to dismiss “time-space” (and “gender issues”) from her novels.

I hope you’ll also give me hints about VN’s suggestion of a Ward/Cinderella prototype.