Reviews on all things Austen
Posted in Criticism, Recommended on Aug 22nd, 2012
I finished reading this book – it is a interesting read and makes me want to read the novels again (that has to be a good thing). Here is the description … Is there any sex in Austen? What do the characters call each other, and why? What are the right and wrong ways [...]
Posted in Criticism on Jul 31st, 2012
A friend sent me a link to this review about this book – of course I had to buy it. It just arrived in the mail and I haven’t read it yet, but it is next in line after All That I Am by Anna Funder. Here are some other reviews … http://austenonly.com/2012/06/10/book-review-what-matters-in-jane-austen-twenty-crucial-puzzles-solved-by-john-mullan/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2163289/What-Mr-Darcys-really-thinking—WHAT-MATTERS-IN-JANE-AUSTEN-TWENTY-CRUCIAL-PUZZLES-SOLVED-BY-JOHN-MULLAN.html
Posted in Criticism, mansfield park on Jun 9th, 2010
As part of my Mansfield Park re-read, I’ve read the Mansfield Park chapter of The Improvement of the Estate by Alistair M Duckworth. It is very accessible I recommend it to anyone interested in Austen’s novels. To my mind his chapter on Mansfield Park is really a defense of it and to prove that is [...]
I finished! Chapter Six is about the Jane Austen brand. Austen is both a popular author and a great one. As such she exists in several mutually exclusive spheres – she is all things to all men. The middle aged, the middle class and those who consider themselves slightly above the middlebrow are Austen’s natural [...]
Chapter Five – Divine Jane In this chapter Harman discusses how Jane Austen became ‘Divine Jane’ or ‘Dear Jane’. In the 1880s the increasing audience was more for Miss Austen than the novels. She was still, however, being read by ‘a few cultured men’ which ensured her critical success. An idea seemed to emerged that [...]
In this chapter Harman writes about the Austen families response to Austen’s growing popularity (as Caroline wrote to James Edward ‘this vexed question between the Austens and the public’)and the demand for more information. Catherine-Anne Hubback (Frank’s daughter) wrote a novel (which was essentially a continuation of The Watsons – not that the public knew) [...]
Jane Austen died in July 1817 – she was 41. Her death notice in the Courier was the first public acknowledgement of her authorship. However, no mention appeared on the memorial inscription on her grave stone. Both James and James Edward wrote poems to commemorate the occasion. Both mention how she put her domestic duties [...]
Posted in Biography, Criticism, Recommended on Jul 16th, 2009
When I set myself the task of reading two chapters a week of Jane’s Fame, I thought it would be easy. However, I have found myself at the end of a chapter without any real idea what I was reading. I haven’t been able to focus. This is in part because the book is such [...]
This post is a bit delayed because I’ve been away (for school holidays) anyway … Chapter One of Claire Harman’s Jane’s Fame provides some biographical detail, but more interestingly focuses on the writers in her family and amongst her acquaintance. We read about her brothers James and Henry who produced The Loiterer (every Saturday from [...]