30 Great Myths About Jane Austen

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30 Great Myths about Jane Austen

Author : Claudia L. Johnson
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119146860
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (191 download)

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Book Synopsis 30 Great Myths about Jane Austen by : Claudia L. Johnson

Download or read book 30 Great Myths about Jane Austen written by Claudia L. Johnson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating look into the myths that continue to shape our understanding and appreciation of Jane Austen. Was Jane Austen the best-selling novelist of her time? Are all her novels romances? Did they depict the traditional world of the aristocracy? Is Austen’s writing easy to understand? Well into the 21st century, Jane Austen continues to be one of the most compelling novelists in all English literature. Many of her ideas about class, family, history, intimacy, manners, love, desire, and society, have inspired “myths” that are often contradictory — she was a Tory who was also a liberal feminist, or, her novels are at once sharply satirical and unapologetically romantic. Myths, like Austen’s works, are dynamic, changing over time and impacting how we read and interpret literature. 30 Great Myths about Jane Austen examines the accepted beliefs — both true and untrue —that have most influenced our readings of Austen. Rather than simply de-bunking, or validating, commonly-held views about Austen, authors Claudia L. Johnson and Clara Tuite explore how these myths can be used to engage with the life, work, and reception of Jane Austen. Applying the most up-to-date scholarship to better understand how myths shape our appreciation of Jane Austen, this fascinating volume: Introduces readers to the history of Austen reception, both in academic scholarship and in the general public Examines Jane Austen’s life and letters, her historical contexts, her texts, and their afterlives Discusses Austen’s influence on the development of literary criticism as a discipline Explores each of Austen’s main novels, as well as relatively obscure texts such as Sanditon and The Watsons Offering engaging narrative and original insights, 30 Great Myths about Jane Austen is a must-read for scholars, instructors, and students of English and Romantic literature, as well as general readers with interest in the life and works of Jane Austen.

30 Great Myths about the Romantics

Author : Duncan Wu
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118843193
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (188 download)

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Book Synopsis 30 Great Myths about the Romantics by : Duncan Wu

Download or read book 30 Great Myths about the Romantics written by Duncan Wu and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-05-06 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brimming with the fascinating eccentricities of a complex and confusing movement whose influences continue to resonate deeply, 30 Great Myths About the Romantics adds great clarity to what we know – or think we know – about one of the most important periods in literary history. Explores the various misconceptions commonly associated with Romanticism, offering provocative insights that correct and clarify several of the commonly-held myths about the key figures of this era Corrects some of the biases and beliefs about the Romantics that have crept into the 21st-century zeitgeist – for example that they were a bunch of drug-addled atheists who believed in free love; that Blake was a madman; and that Wordsworth slept with his sister Celebrates several of the mythic objects, characters, and ideas that have passed down from the Romantics into contemporary culture – from Blake’s Jerusalem and Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn to the literary genre of the vampire Engagingly written to provide readers with a fun yet scholarly introduction to Romanticism and key writers of the period, applying the most up-to-date scholarship to the series of myths that continue to shape our appreciation of their work

30 Great Myths about the Romantics

Author : Duncan Wu
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118843177
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (188 download)

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Book Synopsis 30 Great Myths about the Romantics by : Duncan Wu

Download or read book 30 Great Myths about the Romantics written by Duncan Wu and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-03-04 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brimming with the fascinating eccentricities of a complex andconfusing movement whose influences continue to resonate deeply,30 Great Myths About the Romantics adds great clarity towhat we know – or think we know – about one ofthe most important periods in literary history. Explores the various misconceptions commonly associated withRomanticism, offering provocative insights that correct and clarifyseveral of the commonly-held myths about the key figures of thisera Corrects some of the biases and beliefs about the Romanticsthat have crept into the 21st-century zeitgeist – for examplethat they were a bunch of drug-addled atheists who believed in freelove; that Blake was a madman; and that Wordsworth slept with hissister Celebrates several of the mythic objects, characters, and ideasthat have passed down from the Romantics into contemporary culture– from Blake’s Jerusalem and Keats’sOde on a Grecian Urn to the literary genre of thevampire Engagingly written to provide readers with a fun yet scholarlyintroduction to Romanticism and key writers of the period, applyingthe most up-to-date scholarship to the series of myths thatcontinue to shape our appreciation of their work

Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood

Author : Alison G. Sulloway
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 1512807826
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (128 download)

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Book Synopsis Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood by : Alison G. Sulloway

Download or read book Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood written by Alison G. Sulloway and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditional critics of Jane Austen's novels consider her fiction from the perspective of male literature, male social values, and male myths and assumptions about women. These critics often give excellent readings of Austen, but they mitigate their own best efforts by trying to separate her life from the fiction and the fiction from her awareness of women's predicament in society. In Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood, Alison Sulloway offers a fresh and comprehensive vision of Austen as a moderate feminist. Her studies of the letters, fictional fragments, and minor works, as well as novels, reveal a systematic pattern of feminist plots, themes, motifs, and symbols. She traces the influence on Jane Austen of Anglican conduct literature in addition to the progressive novels written by such women writers as Frances Burney and Maria Edgeworth. Austen's covert acknowledgment of the previously ignored "feminist revolt of the 1790s," Sulloway contends, accounts for the dammed-up energy behind her protective mask of irony. Sulloway perceives Austen and her heroines as survivors attempting to find decent solutions in a society whose owners and managers saw scant need to consider women's dignity. Her book is mediatory, just as Austen, that "provincial Christian gentlewomen," also mediated between the traditional forces of hostility toward women and the counter-forces of radical disruptions. Finally, Sulloway contends, the greatest beauty of Austen's fiction is not in her subtle depiction of the strains of eighteenth-century womanhood but in a certain joy—"Austenian joy"—that transcends grief and anger at various human abuses. More than stoic resolution, it is a comedic gift and a moral resilience that signifies grace under pressure. Sulloway com pares it to the instinctive courage of a soldier who rejoices when a single bird sings during a lull in the bombing. To read Jane Austen for this vision is to appreciate fully her gallant wit and her compassion. Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood will benefit any Austen scholar as well as students and teachers of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature.

30 Great Myths about Chaucer

Author : Thomas A. Prendergast
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119194059
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (191 download)

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Book Synopsis 30 Great Myths about Chaucer by : Thomas A. Prendergast

Download or read book 30 Great Myths about Chaucer written by Thomas A. Prendergast and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The facts and fictions that continue to shape our understanding of Chaucer and his place in literary tradition Is Chaucer the father of English literature? The first English poet? Was he a feminist? A political opportunist? A spy? Is Chaucer’s language too difficult for modern readers? 30 Great Myths about Chaucer explores the widely held ideas and opinions about the medieval poet, discussing how ‘myths’ have influenced Chaucer’s reception history and interpretations of his poetry through the centuries. This unique text offers original insights on the character of Chaucer, the nature of his works, the myths that inform our conceptions of Chaucer, and the underlying causes of these myths. Each accessible and engaging chapter focuses on a specific myth, including those surrounding Chaucer’s romantic life, political leanings, religious views, personal struggles, financial challenges, ideas about chivalry, representations of social class, and many others. More than simply correcting inaccurate facts or clarifying common misconceptions about Chaucer, the text delves deeper to address how the myths have shaped the critical interpretation and enduring literary legacy of Chaucer. This innovative volume: Explores how generations of readers continue to shape understanding of Chaucer Highlights the intersection of medievalism and Chaucer studies Helps readers detach myths about Chaucer from critical readings of his works Examines whether myths about Chaucer are based on historical fact or literary interpretation Discusses the history of reading Chaucer in contexts of biography, criticism, and popular culture 30 Great Myths about Chaucer is an indispensable resource for academics, researchers, graduate students, upper-level undergraduates, and general readers with interest in Chaucer and early English and Middle Ages literature.

Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts

Author : Hannah Moss
Publisher : Edinburgh University Press
ISBN 13 : 1399500422
Total Pages : 609 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts by : Hannah Moss

Download or read book Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts written by Hannah Moss and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-31 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Austen was a keen consumer of the arts throughout her lifetime. The Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts considers how Austen represents the arts in her writing, from her juvenilia to her mature novels. The thirty-three original chapters in this Companion cover the full range of Austen's engagement with the arts, including the silhouette and the caricature, crafts, theatre, fashion, music and dance, together with the artistic potential of both interior and exterior spaces. This volume also explores her artistic afterlives in creative re-imaginings across different media, including adaptations and transpositions in film, television, theatre, digital platforms and games.

Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

Author : Helena Kelly
Publisher : Icon Books
ISBN 13 : 1785781170
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (857 download)

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Book Synopsis Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by : Helena Kelly

Download or read book Jane Austen, the Secret Radical written by Helena Kelly and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A sublime piece of literary detective work that shows us once and for all how to be precisely the sort of reader that Austen deserves.' Caroline Criado-Perez, Guardian Almost everything we think we know about Jane Austen is wrong. Her novels don't confine themselves to grand houses and they were not written just for readers' enjoyment. She writes about serious subjects and her books are deeply subversive. We just don't read her properly - we haven't been reading her properly for 200 years. Jane Austen, The Secret Radical puts that right. In her first, brilliantly original book, Austen expert Helena Kelly introduces the reader to a passionate woman living in an age of revolution; to a writer who used what was regarded as the lightest of literary genres, the novel, to grapple with the weightiest of subjects – feminism, slavery, abuse, the treatment of the poor, the power of the Church, even evolution – at a time, and in a place, when to write about such things directly was seen as akin to treason. Uncovering a radical, spirited and political engaged Austen, Jane Austen, The Secret Radical will encourage you to read Jane, all over again.

Jane Austen and Critical Theory

Author : Michael Kramp
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000401545
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis Jane Austen and Critical Theory by : Michael Kramp

Download or read book Jane Austen and Critical Theory written by Michael Kramp and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Austen and Critical Theory is a collection of new essays that addresses the absence of critical theory in Austen studies—an absence that has limited the reach of Austen criticism. The collection brings together innovative scholars who ask new and challenging questions about the efficacy of Austen’s work. This volume confronts mythical understandings of Austen as "Dear Aunt Jane," the early twentieth-century legacy of Austen as a cultural salve, and the persistent habit of reading her works for advice or instruction. The authors pursue a diversity of methods, encourage us to build new kinds of relationships to Austen and her writings, and demonstrate how these relationships might generate new ideas and possibilities—ideas and possibilities that promise to expand the ways in which we deploy Austen. The book specifically reminds us of the vital importance of Austen and her fiction for central concerns of the humanities, including the place of the individual within civil society, the potential for new identities and communities, the urgency to address racial and sexual oppression, and the need to imagine more just futures. Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Northanger Abbey

Author : Jane Austen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192577808
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (925 download)

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Book Synopsis Northanger Abbey by : Jane Austen

Download or read book Northanger Abbey written by Jane Austen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-09-12 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.' Northanger Abbey is a comedy about reading and misreading-of books and the world-and about different kinds of peril, both imagined and real. In it, Austen's youngest heroine, Catherine Morland, must navigate financial disadvantage, social constraint, and sometimes quite ruthless manipulation. The absurdities of fashion and conspicuous consumption, voguish ostentation and social competition are seen first in shark-infested Bath, (the premier health resort and marriage market of the day) and then in a more tranquil pocket of rural Gloucestershire that turns out to be a hotbed of materialism and greed. Jane Austen combines making fun of the excesses of the Gothic novel with larger moral issues: the folly of letting literature get in the way of life, and the inexcusability (especially for women) of not thinking for oneself. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

So You Think You Know Jane Austen?

Author : John Sutherland
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 9780192804402
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis So You Think You Know Jane Austen? by : John Sutherland

Download or read book So You Think You Know Jane Austen? written by John Sutherland and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2005-03-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ace literary detective John Sutherland and Austen buff Deirdre Le Faye challenge the reader to discover just how well you really know your favourite author. Starting with easy, factual questions the quiz progresses to find out how much you know by deduction and hypothesis- what really motivates the characters, and what is going on underneath the surface? Hugely entertaining as well as full of fascinating insights, So You Think You Know Jane Austen? guarantees you will know her much better after reading it. The answers are at the back!

Translation and Interpretation

Author : Raul Calzoni
Publisher : V&R Unipress
ISBN 13 : 3847014730
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Translation and Interpretation by : Raul Calzoni

Download or read book Translation and Interpretation written by Raul Calzoni and published by V&R Unipress. This book was released on 2022-08-08 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A volume in honour of Angela Locatelli The book explores the significance of literary translation and interpretation, in the widest sense of terms, as multiple processes of meaning and cultural transfer, by investigating how and why literature can be considered as a repository and a disseminator of knowledge and values. Featuring essays by a number of scholars focusing on a wide range of literary and critical texts of different nations and cultures and encompassing the last three centuries, this book intends to offer a contribution to the study of translation and interpretation as literary processes of cultural and epistemic dissemination of knowledge from both a theoretical and a practical perspective.

Jane Austen's Cults and Cultures

Author : Claudia L. Johnson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226402053
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Jane Austen's Cults and Cultures by : Claudia L. Johnson

Download or read book Jane Austen's Cults and Cultures written by Claudia L. Johnson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-05-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Austen completed only six novels, but enduring passion for the author and her works has driven fans to read these books repeatedly, in book clubs or solo, while also inspiring countless film adaptations, sequels, and even spoofs involving zombies and sea monsters. Austen’s lasting appeal to both popular and elite audiences has lifted her to legendary status. In Jane Austen’s Cults and Cultures, Claudia L. Johnson shows how Jane Austen became “Jane Austen,” a figure intensely—sometimes even wildly—venerated, and often for markedly different reasons. Johnson begins by exploring the most important monuments and portraits of Austen, considering how these artifacts point to an author who is invisible and yet whose image is inseparable from the characters and fictional worlds she created. She then passes through the four critical phases of Austen’s reception—the Victorian era, the First and Second World Wars, and the establishment of the Austen House and Museum in 1949—and ponders what the adoration of Austen has meant to readers over the past two centuries. For her fans, the very concept of “Jane Austen” encapsulates powerful ideas and feelings about history, class, manners, intimacy, language, and the everyday. By respecting the intelligence of past commentary about Austen, Johnson shows, we are able to revisit her work and unearth fresh insights and new critical possibilities. An insightful look at how and why readers have cherished one of our most beloved authors, Jane Austen’s Cults and Cultures will be a valuable addition to the library of any fan of the divine Jane.

Selected Letters

Author : Jane Austen
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780192801845
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Selected Letters by : Jane Austen

Download or read book Selected Letters written by Jane Austen and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2004 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In one of her personal letters, Jane Austen wrote "Little Matters they are to be sure, but highly important." In fact, letter-writing was something of an addiction for young women of Jane Austen's time and in her social position, and Austen's letters have a freedom and familiarity that only intimate writing can convey. Wiser than her critics, who were disappointed that her correspondence dwelt on gossip and the minutiae of everyday living, Austen understood the importance of "Little Matters," of the emotional and material details of individual lives shared with friends and family through the medium of the letter. Ironic, acerbic, always entertaining, Jane Austen's letters are a fascinating record not only of her own day-to-day existence, but of the pleasures and frustrations experienced by women of her social class which are so central to her novels. Vivien Jones's selection includes nearly two-thirds of Austen's surviving correspondence, and her lively introduction and notes set the novelist's most private writings in their wider cultural context.

Jane Austen

Author : Mary DeForest
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781537225333
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (253 download)

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Book Synopsis Jane Austen by : Mary DeForest

Download or read book Jane Austen written by Mary DeForest and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-04-05 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is a truth universally established that Jane Austen knew neither Latin nor Greek. As a literary detective, Mary Margolies DeForest disputes this. In Austen's day, classically educated women were loathed. Austen wanted readers to know that she and her best characters had a classical education--just not in her lifetime! Unlike writers who paraded their educational credentials, Austen did not send modern readers diving into footnotes to translate a chunk of Greek or Latin. Instead, she revealed a classical education subtly but profoundly. As DeForest argues, a classical education shapes Austen's characters, their language, and their stories.

Jane Austen and Lord Byron

Author : Christine Kenyon Jones
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 135038142X
Total Pages : 175 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis Jane Austen and Lord Byron by : Christine Kenyon Jones

Download or read book Jane Austen and Lord Byron written by Christine Kenyon Jones and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-02-22 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Austen and Lord Byron are often presented as opposites, but here they are together at last. In Regency England he was the first celebrity author while she was a parson's daughter writing anonymously. This book explores how their lives, interests, work and sense of humour often brought them within touching distance, and sets them side by side in the world of the Regency and Romantic period. Using some little-known sources and new research, it illustrates how they were distantly related by marriage; how they knew about each other even though they probably never met; the acquaintances they had in common and how their literary work often came close in subject-matter, approach, technique and tone. Engagingly written and beautifully illustrated, this book will inform and delight scholars and Austen and Byron fans alike, showing that these two great authors were closer than you might think, even in their own day.

A Jane Austen Education

Author : William Deresiewicz
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101514175
Total Pages : 174 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis A Jane Austen Education by : William Deresiewicz

Download or read book A Jane Austen Education written by William Deresiewicz and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-04-28 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eloquent memoir of a young man's life transformed by literature. In A Jane Austen Education, Austen scholar William Deresiewicz turns to the author's novels to reveal the remarkable life lessons hidden within. With humor and candor, Deresiewicz employs his own experiences to demonstrate the enduring power of Austen's teachings. Progressing from his days as an immature student to a happily married man, Deresiewicz's A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man's discovery of the world outside himself. A self-styled intellectual rebel dedicated to writers such as James Joyce and Joseph Conrad, Deresiewicz never thought Austen's novels would have anything to offer him. But when he was assigned to read Emma as a graduate student at Columbia, something extraordinary happened. Austen's devotion to the everyday, and her belief in the value of ordinary lives, ignited something in Deresiewicz. He began viewing the world through Austen's eyes and treating those around him as generously as Austen treated her characters. Along the way, Deresiewicz was amazed to discover that the people in his life developed the depth and richness of literary characters-that his own life had suddenly acquired all the fascination of a novel. His real education had finally begun. Weaving his own story-and Austen's-around the ones her novels tell, Deresiewicz shows how her books are both about education and themselves an education. Her heroines learn about friendship and feeling, staying young and being good, and, of course, love. As they grow up, they learn lessons that are imparted to Austen's reader, who learns and grows by their sides. A Jane Austen Education is a testament to the transformative power of literature, a celebration of Austen's mastery, and a joy to read. Whether for a newcomer to Austen or a lifelong devotee, Deresiewicz brings fresh insights to the novelist and her beloved works. Ultimately, Austen's world becomes indelibly entwined with our own, showing the relevance of her message and the triumph of her vision.

Jane Austen

Author : Josephine Ross
Publisher : John Murray Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9780719556845
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (568 download)

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Book Synopsis Jane Austen by : Josephine Ross

Download or read book Jane Austen written by Josephine Ross and published by John Murray Publishers. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her lifetime Jane Austen achieved no more than minor literary success, and her fame grew only slowly in the 19th century. Was there anything remarkable about that lady, Sir? a verger at Winchester Cathedral enquired of a Victorian visitor seeking her tomb. Only, so many people ask for her. Today in the English language, only Shakespeare and Dickens are bestsellers in her league, and in the 21st century her appeal seems set to grow further, especially when more television and film adaptations follow the hugely successful Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility of recent years. Josephine Ross explores the literary world at the turn of the 19th century: the books considered classics then, the horrid novels and romances of the time, the lending libraries and grasping publishers. She looks at the architecture and decor which then made up the profusion and elegance of modern taste: Nash houses for instance, Chippendale furniture, picturesque scenery. She shows us the fashions of the time, and the subtle ways Jane Austen used clothes to express character. Courtship, marriage, adultery, questions of class and rank, the ordinary life of mealtimes, travel, doctors and dentists, work, responsibility and amusement all appear, as does the wider political and military world - especially the Navy, in which her brothers served. This book should add depth to the enjoyment of all readers of Jane Austen, whether confirmed devotees or enthralled newcomers.