Jane Austen, Feminism and Fiction by Margaret Kirkham My rating: 5 of 5 stars Part of my ongoing research in preparation for my graduate thesis. It was a bit of an adventure trying to secure a copy of this book. I ended up getting a temporary library card from one of the universities in my hometown, then made my way up to the 8th floor of a very quiet, unfamiliar library, quickly found the book, sneezed a whole bunch from the book dust, signed it out and then rushed home. For some strange reason I felt very uncomfortable at that library and I hoped the book wouldn’t prove too far…
-
-
The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen
The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen by Janet Todd My rating: 1 of 5 stars Part of my ongoing research in preparation for my graduate thesis. A rather slim volume by the looks of it, I wondered what new information I could glean from such a short introduction to Jane Austen after having completed a month and a half of research, plus a trip to Bath and Chawton in England. I must be completely honest here and ask the very straight forward question: what the heck was this supposed to be? The book begins with a chapter on Jane Austen’s life. It feels thrown together; summarized from other sources that…
-
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly My rating: 5 of 5 stars Part of my ongoing research in preparation for my graduate thesis. This wasn’t originally on my reading list, but my husband spotted it at the Waterstones bookshop in Bath and insisted on buying it. He has a good eye for great resources. This was the first book on Jane Austen and her works that (1) did not put her on some sort of pedestal; (2) did not blindly accept every detail that is known about her as fact; and (3) did not end up critiquing Jane’s writing and life choices based on present day options available…
-
Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England
Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England by Amanda Vickery My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was my third attempt in venturing to understand Georgian social customs better. And again, my efforts have been in vain; however, it was an entertaining read and one which treats the reader to some unexpected insights into Jane Austen’s uses of houses and the symbolic significance of house touring during scenes in several of her novels. In addition, the research presented is based on factual bookkeeping accounts that tells the story of a handful of couples setting up houses. I appreciated the author’s witty narrative style which brought the subject manner and…
-
The Georgians At Home
The Georgians At Home by Elizabeth Burton My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was another book in my venture to understand Georgian social customs better. This one also dealt more with the materialistic manners of how Georgians lived, but not so much the social aspect of it. Again, this was a very interesting read, highly researched and put together. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could use for my specific topic of research. I found the writing style slightly dry, though, which reminded me of on old high school history textbook. It was difficult to maintain my enthusiasm at times. Overall, it is still a great source of information about…
-
Georgian Delights
Georgian Delights by J.H. Plumb My rating: 3 of 5 stars Ever since reading Worsley’s Jane Austen at Home I have been rather puzzled about the Georgian time period and how people behaved back then. Not surprisingly, considering Worsley kept mentioning that Austen was, in fact, a true Georgian lady, acting accordingly, quite differently from her Victorian counterparts, including her very proper niece Fanny Knight. I wanted to know more about how people lived and behaved, but more importantly I was curious about this Georgian code of conduct. It appears it is quite difficult to find books on this subject matter, since most publications dealing with the Georgian period are…
-
Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage
Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage by B.C. Southam My rating: 3 of 5 stars Part of my ongoing research in preparation for my graduate thesis. As far as I can see, all of the initial responses to Jane Austen’s work were collected in this volume. It includes letters, diary entries and essays discussing and recommending Austen’s works, and Austen’s own assortment of opinions she gathered of family and friends about the novels that were published during her lifetime. The editor’s introduction contains a few interesting points. Most of the reviews and opinions included in this collection have been cited in various biographies that were composed following its publication, but it…
-
The Postcolonial Jane Austen
The Postcolonial Jane Austen by You-Me Park My rating: 2 of 5 stars Part of my ongoing research in preparation for my graduate thesis. It is always unfortunate and a little annoying when books turn out to be non-referencing when researching one’s topic. But regardless of my personal feelings with respect to the time I used perusing this text, I found it rather confusing and lacking any distinct focus and direction. I remember taking a postcolonial literature course back during my undergraduate years with a professor named Austen, kind of ironic, right? The prof was nice enough and very enthusiastic about the topic and I really tried my best and…
-
A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf
A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa My rating: 3 of 5 stars As part of my ongoing research for my thesis I primarily focused on the section that dealt with Jane Austen’s friendship with Anne Sharp. I was excited to read this book and had high hopes to find little pieces of information that could be truly beneficial for my thesis. I ended up being disappointed. It did discuss the friendship that had not really been mentioned by anyone else, but the research and evidence provided is lacking. Barely any quotes are used and the ones that…
-
Representing Women and Female Desire from Arcadia to Jane Eyre
Representing Women and Female Desire from Arcadia to Jane Eyre by Marea Mitchell My rating: 1 of 5 stars Part of my ongoing research for my graduate thesis. I’m really not quite sure what this was supposed to argue or communicate. I thought the summary was very misleading, since it says it will examine women and female desire from Arcadia to Jane Eyre not comparing other works of classical literature to Arcadia. Most of the time I had no clue what was going on and noticed that the section focusing on Austen’s Pride & Prejudice talked more about Darcy and Bingley than truly committing to the concept of women and…
