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More About This Book

Overview

From the first publication of Pride and Prejudice to recent film versions of her life and work, Jane Austen has continued to provoke controversy and inspire fantasies of peculiar intimacy. Whether celebrated for her realism, proto-feminism, or patrician gentility, imagined as a subversive or a political conservative, Austen generates passions shaped by the ideologies and trends of her readers' time—and by her own memorable stories, characters, and elusive narrative cool.

In this book, Rachel M. Brownstein considers constructions of Jane Austen as a heroine, moralist, satirist, romantic, woman, and author and the changing notions of these categories. She finds echoes of Austen's insights and techniques in contemporary Jane-o-mania, the commercially driven, erotically charged popular vogue that aims paradoxically to preserve and liberate, to correct and collaborate with old Jane. Brownstein's brilliant discussion of the distinctiveness and distinction of Austen's genius clarifies the reasons why we read the novelist—or why we should read her-and reorients the prevailing view of her work. Reclaiming the rich comedy of Austen while constructing a new narrative of authorship, Brownstein unpacks the author's fascinating entanglement with readers and other admirers.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Jane Austen led a relatively obscure life. So why Jane Austen, we might rhetorically ask, along with Brownstein? The term Janeites was coined by an English literary critic in 1894, and Jane-o-Mania makes its debut in this book, which is part lit crit and, in its better sections, part cultural and social history. Much of this account is engaging: it cleverly begins with a 1949 Carl Rose cartoon depicting a "Hooray for Jane" marching band, and concentrates on explaining Austen's rising stock. But it might be a bit much for nonacademics; a little too cute in that winking, academic way. The question mark of the title and many others become something of a writer's tic, and the reader begs for some answers, too. Nonetheless, along the way we learn a lot that is unexpected. For example, Harpo Marx had a surprising role in bringing Austen to the silver screen. Brownstein, professor of English at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, expends even more fruitful energy on Austen's contemporary, Lord Byron, on Mary Wollstonecraft, on "The Aspern Papers." Her observations on all these works are scholarly but marked by ingenuity. 17 illus. (June)
Seattle Times

Along the way, the reader, too, may discover in Brownstein's book what the author discovers in Austen: a means of transporting ourselves to a more gracious and better-ordered world.

— Melinda Bargreen

More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
Library Journal
Combining literary criticism, biography, cultural studies, and women's studies to build a case for why Jane Austen remains relevant to so many readers, Brownstein (English, Brooklyn Coll. & CUNY Graduate Ctr.; Becoming a Heroine: Reading About Women in Novels) compares Austen's life to contemporaries such as Lord Byron and explores how her novels have been interpreted and used by later writers. Brownstein's interpretations of Austen's novels, letters, and juvenilia are fresh and frequently illuminating. While she pays attention to all of Austen's novels, she focuses most heavily on Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Devotees of Austen's other novels may feel slighted, but the two novels do act as natural contrasts. Pride and Prejudice is the most frequently adapted and probably the best-loved of Austen's novels, while Austen expected that she herself would be the only person to like the title character of Emma. Brownstein dissects film and television adaptations, charting the changing perceptions of the novelist and the novels, and explores the industry of "fake" Austen fiction as well. VERDICT This book will delight devoted readers and students of Jane Austen and may inspire readers who have disliked Austen in the past. Cultural studies enthusiasts interested in the interplay between high culture and pop culture will also enjoy it.—Sharon E. Reidt, Marlboro Coll. Lib., VT

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780231153904
  • Publisher: Columbia University Press
  • Publication date: 6/28/2011
  • Pages: 320
  • Sales rank: 275,833
  • Product dimensions: 6.20 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Meet the Author

Rachel M. Brownstein is professor of English at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of two critically acclaimed books, Becoming a Heroine: Reading About Women in Novels and Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comédie-Française.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction1. Why We Read Jane Austen2. Looking for Jane3. Neighbors4. Authors5. Why We Reread Jane AustenAfterwordsNotesIndex

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