Jane and Her Gentlemen: Jane Austen and the Men in Her Life and Novels by Audrey Hawkridge
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Part of my ongoing research in preparation for my graduate thesis.
This was a fun and cute sort of summary of Jane’s life and works regarding it from the males in her life and the males that made it into her works of fiction.
The author used a lot of quotes from her correspondence, sometimes taking over most of the page with the author’s own contribution limited to one sentence to provide context.
For someone, who has done as much research on Jane as me in the last two months, this book may seem a little superficial and redundant, because nothing new or ground-breaking is argued.
Granted it can be a bit difficult, considering the amount of work that has been done in the last 200 years and the actual facts academics and scholars have at their disposal.
I wish the author had gone into more depth, added her own ideas, conclusions suggestions that would have shown her perspective of the topic. Sadly, all the reader gets is a summary of the resources that are already out there to be perused.
Overall, it was cute and perhaps a different sort of introduction to Austen and her writing. For readers, who already have a working knowledge of Jane’s life and her work, this may be a bit too superficial.
