How facinating!
It's possible that as with all new things the 'Ms.' had it's fair share of misconceptions along the way. Or perhaps a wide array of women used it, and some used it as you described Sarah. (Though I've never met a woman who used the abbreviation Ms. for that reason. They are all 20-something though)
If I had time tonight I might google-search the historical beginnings of that word.
Ms was just an attempt to find a female equivalent of Mr. So basically an abbreviation that was consistently the same. Mr. Darcy's name-identity does not change. By the end he is still Mr. Darcy. So the Ms. was born: a name-identity that isn't effected by any male. Or so I remember reading way back in college days.
That said I have to agree: where writing set in the regency era is concerned, it has to be Miss Bennet. I think it was perhaps an unconscious move on the part of the writers you read. Since in modern usage, Ms is common.
It's possible that as with all new things the 'Ms.' had it's fair share of misconceptions along the way. Or perhaps a wide array of women used it, and some used it as you described Sarah. (Though I've never met a woman who used the abbreviation Ms. for that reason. They are all 20-something though)
If I had time tonight I might google-search the historical beginnings of that word.
Ms was just an attempt to find a female equivalent of Mr. So basically an abbreviation that was consistently the same. Mr. Darcy's name-identity does not change. By the end he is still Mr. Darcy. So the Ms. was born: a name-identity that isn't effected by any male. Or so I remember reading way back in college days.
That said I have to agree: where writing set in the regency era is concerned, it has to be Miss Bennet. I think it was perhaps an unconscious move on the part of the writers you read. Since in modern usage, Ms is common.