Customer Reviews

The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

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I have to admit from the outset here, that I am a confirmed Janeite, I have an Austen discussion list, and I have read Austen's novels over and over again. So that may well colour what you feel about this review.

This book probably has a limited readership. Austen is still a popular author today - the string of recent movie adaptations and their wild popularity has proven that. It helps too that Austen's books can still be read these days and enjoyed without any help - after all language-wise there isn't slang and metre that puts people off Shakespeare - and her themes of love and marriage are pertinent to any age.

Yet a companion like this is really useful for there were still little in-jokes which Austen uses - her contemporary readers would have understood these without further explanation, but for us we can do with a bit more background to the times she was living in. The most useful chapters for this are 7, 8 and 9 which deal with class, money and Religion and Politics. You don't need to read to understand, but if you want to enjoy Austen's irony in greater depth they make very useful reading.

This is a neat little book if you are not sure if you want to read more on Austen either in Critical literature or biographically. It has 12 chapters in all which offer subjects ranging from the chronology of her life and work, to a good essay on her letters and style. I didn't much enjoy the chapter on Style but I was put off by the graphs in that one (don't ask!). You will pleased to know that this doesn't lack for academic credentials, but it isn't too forcefully academic. I don't think you would enjoy this book at all if you haven't read all of Austen's works, and some idea of their various characters.

So, if you are looking for a handy little volume and a quick read on Austen, her life and times then this is very worthwhile indeed. Other books on Austen that might you enjoy are Claire Tomalin's biography 'Jane Austen - a life' which is excellent. Amanda Vickery's book "The Gentleman's Daughters" is a beautifully researched and written piece on woman's lives in Austen's time and of Austen's class (even using some of her letters).

I used this book when I was writing a thesis on Austen. The chapters are each broken into themes (Money, Class, etc.) for easy reference, and there is an extensive index. The book can be uneven because each chapter is written by a different author. Still, the authors represented are among the most prominent Austen authorities in the world.

Once the dedicated Jane Austen fan has read the six finished novels, the so-called Juvenalia, the novel fragments, and the letters, the next best thing is to read what others have said about her life and her body of work. "The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen" offers thirteen essays by Jane Austen scholars that provide a little depth or an alternate vantage point on Austen and her work.

The essays address a variety of topics, beginning with a chronology of her life; progressing through some literary criticism of the novels, juvenalia, short fiction, and letters; and including some specialized discussion of class, money, and the cult of Jane Austen.

This reviewer found the essay on "The Professional Woman Author" to be especially interesting. Jan Fegus describes the publishing process of the day and narrates Austen's struggle to get her books into print. In the process, she details just how little money Jane Austen realized from her writing in her own lifetime.

Carol Houlihan Flynn goes behind the obvious content of Jane Austen's letters to discover a woman determined to apply her rather subversive intellect to the mundane task of communicating with family and friends. The often wickedly observant Austen of the letters bears a close resemblance to the young and unorthodox author that Margaret Anne Doody finds in her essay on "The Short Fiction". Isobel Grundy, in "Jane Austen and literary traditions", finds that her unsystematic education caused her to find much of her own way in her writing style.

"The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen" may be a bit dry for the general reader. It is highly recommended to the dedicated Jane Austen fan, who should find much to entertain or enlighten.