Jane Austen and the Theatre [Hardcover]

Paula Byrne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 5, 2003

Jane Austen enjoyed and was greatly interested in the theatre. Many of her novels, with their memorable individual characters, dramatic confrontations and surprising denouements, owe part of their effect to theatrical inspiration. The dra-matic impact of her novels is demonstrat-ed by the ease with which they have been adapted for television and film. In Jane Austen and the Theatre Paula Byrne makes clear the important part the theatre played in both Jane Austen's life and work.

There is no doubt about Jane Austen's own passion for the stage. She went to the theatre in London and Bath whenever she could, acted in private theatricals, and wrote a number of her early works in play form. Living in a great age of English stage comedy, she drew inspiration from Sheridan as well as Shakespeare. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Mansfield Park are, as Paula Byrne shows, all shaped by the comic drama of the period and by Jane Austen's own understanding of men and women as actors playing parts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A rare combination of erudition and originality, Jane Austen and the Theatre opens many new doors onto the novelist and her work." --Claudia Johnson

"...elegant and fascinating." --Miranda Seymour, Spectator

Book Description

Jane Austen enjoyed and was greatly interested in the theater. Many of her novels, with their memorable individual characters, dramatic confrontations and surprising denouements, owe part of their effect to theatrical inspiration. The dramatic impact of her novels is demonstrated by the ease with which they have been adapted for television and film. In Jane Austen and the Theatre, Paula Byrne makes clear the important part the theater played in both Jane Austen’s life and work.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hambledon Continuum (February 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852853867
• ISBN-13: 978-1852853860
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,799,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paula was born in Birkenhead in 1967, the third daughter in a large working-class Catholic family. She studied English and Theology at the college that is now Chichester University and then taught English and Drama at Wirral Grammar School for Boys and Wirral Metropolitan College. She then completed her MA and PhD in English Literature at the University of Liverpool. She is now a full-time writer, living with her husband, the Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bate, and their three young children (Tom, Ellie and Harry) in an old farmhouse in a South Warwickshire village near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Paula is represented by The Wylie Agency. She is an Executive Trustee of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Warwick.

Paula is the author of the top ten bestseller Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson (HarperCollins UK, Random House USA). A selection for the 2005 Richard and Judy Book Club and a British Book Awards 'Best Read' nomination, Perdita was also long-listed for the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize. It tells the extraordinary story of the eighteenth-century actress, poet, novelist, feminist, celebrity and royal mistress Mary 'Perdita' Robinson (1757-1800).

Paula's first book, shortlisted for the Theatre Book Prize, was Jane Austen and the Theatre, published in 2002 and reissued in paperback in 2007 by Hambledon Continuum. Paul Johnson of The Spectator chose it as his best-ever book on Jane Austen and the Times Literary Supplement described as a 'definitive and pioneering study of a wholly neglected aspect of Austen's art.' She has also edited a Routledge Literary Sourcebook on Jane Austen's Emma.

Paula has published essays on a wide range of women authors, reviews for the Sunday Telegraph and the TLS, and in her new book tells the story of Evelyn Waugh's friendship with the extraordinary aristocratic family who inspired Brideshead Revisited. Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead is published worldwide by HarperCollins, with the UK edition out in August 2009 and the USA edition forthcoming in early March 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatly enhanced my appreciation of Jane Austen's novels., September 12, 2004

By 

Nina Edmondson (El Dorado Hills, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jane Austen and the Theatre (Hardcover)

In 2002, two books were published with the titles of "Jane Austen and the Theater", one by Paula Byrne and the other by Penny Gay. As an avid reader of Jane Austen's novels, I was curious and read them both. Both books were good but for the casual reader like myself, I found Paula Byrne's the most enlightning and educational.

The first part of the book covers Jane Austen's life and her interest in the theater. This part of the book also educates the casual reader about dramatic technics such as dramatic presentation and dramatic dialogue.

The second part of the book shows how Jane used her knowledge and experience of the theater in her novels. In this part of the book she shows how Jane used theatrical motifs, especially comedic satir. Finally, I think Paula Byrne has given us some insight into where Jane got some of her ideas for her characters and stories.