Ulteriori informazioni
Zusatztext “Contains almost as many gems as the novels encompass.”— Miami Herald “The novels of Jane Austen live beyond the page! haunting our lives. The writers in this volume explain their own relationship with Austen and together are a kind of invitation for us! whether we’re Janeites or not! to understand why we are so in her thrall.”— Chicago Tribune “Austen’s irony is so deliciously multilayered that every rereading will yield a fresh perspective. This book offers many such discoveries. . . . [A] delightful volume.”— The Economist “Jane Austen remains a hot literary property [and this book] explains her eternal appeal.” —USA Today “Austenites will enjoy dipping into this collection.”— Booklist “The pieces make many astute points about Austen's oeuvre.”— Publishers Weekly Informationen zum Autor Susannah Carson is a doctoral candidate in French at Yale University. Her previous degrees include an M.Phil from the Sorbonne Paris III, as well as MAs from the Université Lyon II and San Francisco State University. She has lectured on various topics of English and French literature at Oxford, the University of Glasgow, Yale, Harvard, Concordia, and Boston University. Klappentext Why are we so fascinated with Jane Austen's novels? Why is Austen so universally beloved? The essayists in this volume offer their thoughts on the delightful puzzle of Austen's popularity. Classic and contemporary writers-novelists, essayists, journalists, scholars, and a filmmaker-discuss the tricks and treasures of Austen's novels, from her witty dialogue, to the arc and sweep of her story lines, to her prescriptions for life and love. Virginia Woolf examines Austen's maturation as an artist and speculates on how her writing would have changed had she lived another twenty years, while Anna Quindlen examines the enduring issues of social pressure and gender politics that make Pride and Prejudice as vital today as ever. From Harold Bloom to Martin Amis, Somerset Maugham to Jay McInerney, Eudora Welty to Amy Bloom, each writer reflects on Austen's place in both the literary canon and our cultural imagination. Susanna Clarke WHY WE READ JANE AUSTEN: YOUNG PERSONS IN INTERESTING SITUATIONS "Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of." So said Jane Austen in Emma in the early 1800s, and for the rest of the nineteenth century novelists got a lot of mileage out of young persons who either died or married. Dickens excelled at the young persons who died, Austen did the ones who married. Stories about love and marriage are full of the good stuff: romance, sexual attraction, jealousy, suspense, misunderstanding. But in the early nineteenth century they had another dimension. All of a woman's Future—her happily-ever-after or lack of the same—was implicit in her choice of husband. Such, at least, was the conventional wisdom of the age, and whether or not it was entirely true, clearly many things did depend on whom a woman married-her income, her status, her home, perhaps even her occupations. If the female characters in Austen's novels sometimes give the impression of considering potential husbands rather dispassionately, there is good reason for it. In many ways they are not only choosing a husband, they are also choosing a career. By their marriage Austen's heroines may become a parson's wife (Elinor, Fanny, and Catherine), a landowner's wife (Elizabeth and Emma), or a ship's captain's wife (Anne). With the exception of Emma, marriage holds out to them not simply a more financially secure life, but the opportunity for a more active, socially responsible one. Today the idea of marriage is a loaded one; at best it's a closing down of options. ...
