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The Lost Books of Jane Austen
Hardcore bibliography meets Antiques Roadshow in an illustrated exploration of the role that cheap reprints played in Jane Austen's literary celebrity—and in changing the larger book world itself.
Gold Winner of the 2019 Foreword INDIES Award for History by FOREWORD Reviews
In the nineteenth century, inexpensive editions of Jane Austen's novels targeted to Britain's working classes were sold at railway stations, traded for soap wrappers, and awarded as school prizes. At just pennies a copy, these reprints were some of the earliest mass-market paperbacks, with Austen's beloved stories squeezed into tight columns on thin, cheap paper. Few of these hard-lived bargain books survive, yet they made a substantial difference to Austen's early readership. These were the books bought and read by ordinary people.
Packed with nearly 100 full-color photographs of dazzling, sometimes gaudy, sometimes tasteless covers, The Lost Books of Jane Austen is a unique history of these rare and forgotten Austen volumes. Such shoddy editions, Janine Barchas argues, were instrumental in bringing Austen's work and reputation before the general public. Only by examining them can we grasp the chaotic range of Austen's popular reach among working-class readers.
Informed by the author's years of unconventional book hunting, The Lost Books of Jane Austen will surprise even the most ardent Janeite with glimpses of scruffy survivors that challenge the prevailing story of the author's steady and genteel rise. Thoroughly innovative and occasionally irreverent, this book will appeal in equal measure to book historians, Austen fans, and scholars of literary celebrity.
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The Lost Books of Jane Austen
Hardcore bibliography meets Antiques Roadshow in an illustrated exploration of the role that cheap reprints played in Jane Austen's literary celebrity—and in changing the larger book world itself.
Gold Winner of the 2019 Foreword INDIES Award for History by FOREWORD Reviews
In the nineteenth century, inexpensive editions of Jane Austen's novels targeted to Britain's working classes were sold at railway stations, traded for soap wrappers, and awarded as school prizes. At just pennies a copy, these reprints were some of the earliest mass-market paperbacks, with Austen's beloved stories squeezed into tight columns on thin, cheap paper. Few of these hard-lived bargain books survive, yet they made a substantial difference to Austen's early readership. These were the books bought and read by ordinary people.
Packed with nearly 100 full-color photographs of dazzling, sometimes gaudy, sometimes tasteless covers, The Lost Books of Jane Austen is a unique history of these rare and forgotten Austen volumes. Such shoddy editions, Janine Barchas argues, were instrumental in bringing Austen's work and reputation before the general public. Only by examining them can we grasp the chaotic range of Austen's popular reach among working-class readers.
Informed by the author's years of unconventional book hunting, The Lost Books of Jane Austen will surprise even the most ardent Janeite with glimpses of scruffy survivors that challenge the prevailing story of the author's steady and genteel rise. Thoroughly innovative and occasionally irreverent, this book will appeal in equal measure to book historians, Austen fans, and scholars of literary celebrity.
Hardcore bibliography meets Antiques Roadshow in an illustrated exploration of the role that cheap reprints played in Jane Austen's literary celebrity—and in changing the larger book world itself.
Gold Winner of the 2019 Foreword INDIES Award for History by FOREWORD Reviews
In the nineteenth century, inexpensive editions of Jane Austen's novels targeted to Britain's working classes were sold at railway stations, traded for soap wrappers, and awarded as school prizes. At just pennies a copy, these reprints were some of the earliest mass-market paperbacks, with Austen's beloved stories squeezed into tight columns on thin, cheap paper. Few of these hard-lived bargain books survive, yet they made a substantial difference to Austen's early readership. These were the books bought and read by ordinary people.
Packed with nearly 100 full-color photographs of dazzling, sometimes gaudy, sometimes tasteless covers, The Lost Books of Jane Austen is a unique history of these rare and forgotten Austen volumes. Such shoddy editions, Janine Barchas argues, were instrumental in bringing Austen's work and reputation before the general public. Only by examining them can we grasp the chaotic range of Austen's popular reach among working-class readers.
Informed by the author's years of unconventional book hunting, The Lost Books of Jane Austen will surprise even the most ardent Janeite with glimpses of scruffy survivors that challenge the prevailing story of the author's steady and genteel rise. Thoroughly innovative and occasionally irreverent, this book will appeal in equal measure to book historians, Austen fans, and scholars of literary celebrity.
Janine Barchas is a professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of Graphic Design, Print Culture, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel and the creator of the What Jane Saw website: www.whatjanesaw.org.
Table of Contents
Preface Vignette I. Marianne & Gertrude Introduction. Austen on the Cheap Vignette II. Emma at the Seaside Chapter 1. Paperback Fighter: Austen for the People Vignette III. The Old Sea Captain & William Price Chapter 2. Sense, Sensibility, and Soap: Lever Promotions in the 1890s Vignette IV. Charlotte & a Real Castle Chapter 3. Looking Divine: Wrapping Austen in the Religious Vignette V. Young Heman's Summer in Paris Chapter 4. Selling with Paintings: A Curious History of the Cheap Prestige Reprint Vignette VI. Lady Isabella's Mansfield Park Chapter 5. Pinking Jane Austen: The Turn to "Chick Lit" Vignette VII. Annie's Prized Gift CodaAcknowledgments Notes Selected Works Cited Index
What People are Saying About This
Jon Klancher
Janine Barchas's new book makes a fascinating breakthrough in print history, opening up a fresh 'everyday' history of publishing and reading that goes far beyond elite publishers and libraries. Her visually resplendent study is based on an innovative research method in which Ebay auctions and private collections count as much as any traditional print archive. A scholarly performance not to be missed.
Leah Price
This ferociously researched book proves that a fresh set of methods can teach us something new about even this much-studied author. Barchas's innovatively defined evidence base steers a middle course between traditional interest in letters, diaries, and published criticism as sources of reception history, and the interest in kitsch collectibles and fan fiction that began several decades ago.
Devoney Looser
In this groundbreaking, exquisitely researched, and stunningly illustrated book, Janine Barchas uncovers the unsung and ordinary editions—the 'lost' books—that profoundly shaped Austen's afterlife and evolving literary reputation. The Lost Books of Jane Austen proves once and for all that accounts of the once-forgotten Austen, the elite Austen, and the chick-lit Austen are perfectly partial. It's absolutely delightful to discover, thanks to Barchas, all that we've missed.
Deidre Shauna Lynch
Before Jane Austen was great, she was popular, Janine Barchas contends in this original, often audacious study. Thanks to Barchas's tremendous talents as book historian and book sleuth, we have new tools with which to assess that popularity and a new model of how to write reception history.
From the Publisher
A major new work by Janine Barchas, an outstanding critic both of Jane Austen and of book history. The Lost Books of Jane Austen is cogent and persuasive.—Peter Sabor, McGill University, editor of The Cambridge Companion to "Emma"
This ferociously researched book proves that a fresh set of methods can teach us something new about even this much-studied author. Barchas's innovatively defined evidence base steers a middle course between traditional interest in letters, diaries, and published criticism as sources of reception history, and the interest in kitsch collectibles and fan fiction that began several decades ago.—Leah Price, Harvard University, author of How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain
Before Jane Austen was great, she was popular, Janine Barchas contends in this original, often audacious study. Thanks to Barchas's tremendous talents as book historian and book sleuth, we have new tools with which to assess that popularity and a new model of how to write reception history.—Deidre Shauna Lynch, Harvard University, author of Loving Literature: A Cultural History
In this groundbreaking, exquisitely researched, and stunningly illustrated book, Janine Barchas uncovers the unsung and ordinary editions—the 'lost' books—that profoundly shaped Austen's afterlife and evolving literary reputation. The Lost Books of Jane Austen proves once and for all that accounts of the once-forgotten Austen, the elite Austen, and the chick-lit Austen are perfectly partial. It's absolutely delightful to discover, thanks to Barchas, all that we've missed.—Devoney Looser, Arizona State University, author of The Making of Jane Austen
Janine Barchas's new book makes a fascinating breakthrough in print history, opening up a fresh 'everyday' history of publishing and reading that goes far beyond elite publishers and libraries. Her visually resplendent study is based on an innovative research method in which Ebay auctions and private collections count as much as any traditional print archive. A scholarly performance not to be missed.—Jon Klancher, Carnegie Mellon University, author of Transfiguring the Arts and Sciences: Knowledge and Cultural Institutions in the Romantic Age
Janine Barchas demonstrates that literary works are canonized not by first editions, but by cheap reprints. She has tracked down tattered Victorian volumes of Jane Austen, the ephemeral publications through which Austen reached a mass audience. This is a strikingly innovative approach to the history of reading, which illuminates how popular books become Great Books.—Jonathan Rose, Drew University, author of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Peter Sabor
A major new work by Janine Barchas, an outstanding critic both of Jane Austen and of book history. The Lost Books of Jane Austen is cogent and persuasive.
Jonathan Rose
Janine Barchas demonstrates that literary works are canonized not by first editions, but by cheap reprints. She has tracked down tattered Victorian volumes of Jane Austen, the ephemeral publications through which Austen reached a mass audience. This is a strikingly innovative approach to the history of reading, which illuminates how popular books become Great Books.
