Although Jane Austen has long been one of England's best loved novelists this book by Roger Gard is at once a discussion of Jane Austen's oeuvre and a commentary that should stimulate all readers. Gard offers discussions of the six major novels, together with the early "Lady Susan" and the unfinished "Sanditon". The precise nature and scope of Jane Austen's realism, her particularly English approach to the world, and the characteristic blend in her work of a sharp skepticism about human nature and its banality with an idealism about human virtue are themes that recur throughout Gard's study. The book also makes links between Jane Austen and other authors ranging from Shakespeare to Flaubert, Lawrence, George Eliot, and Barbara Pym.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Gard (reader in English at Queen Mary and Westfield Coll., Univ. of London) has authored and edited several studies on Jane Austen and Henry James, including Jane Austen, Emma and Persuasion (Viking, 1989) and Henry James: The Critical Heritage ( LJ 11/1/68). The present study is a reaction against the approach generally taken in contemporary literary criticism. Espousing the more personal reader response criticism, Gard argues that readers of Austen need not be specialists in Georgian England or in Austen's literary predecessors. Writing of Northanger Abbey --for which Mrs. Radcliffe's novels are usually considered prerequisites--he states, "This general truth is particularly important to Northanger Abbey because one of its exemplary features is its simple accessibility." Gard has a strong sense of Austen's voice and diction and, in fact, plays with these in his chapter on Pride and Prejudice , which he writes as a dialog. Highly recommended to both Janeites and Austen scholars.
-Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, Ore.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, Ore.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Champion of the 'common reader' writes for academics,
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This review is from: Jane Austen's Novels: The Art of Clarity (Paperback)
Rating a book like this is somewhat difficult, because it depends in part upon audience. This is a book that defends ordinary readers of Jane Austen, but I would not say that it is a book for them. Given the subtitle: "The Art of Clarity," the cover, a detail of a painting by Turner, seemed ironic. The painting is a somewhat crudely painted room inhabited by vaguely human-shaped blobs of paint. Whatever one may think of Turner, "clarity" is not an adjective I would use for the illustration. (Oddly enough, the illustration looks better in the little reproduction on Amazon than it does in person. Apparently, one needs to stand back from Turner's painting.)Gard's writing is not a model of clarity either: his sentences are often convoluted, extremely long, include untranslated French passages, and forced me to seek a dictionary a number of times. One also needs to have read more 18th & 19th century literature than I have, since Gard is forever attempting to make a point by comparing Austen to some other work that I haven't read and that isn't sufficiently explained. I have read Madame Bovary, but I don't remember anything about her greyhound, so the comparison to Pug in Mansfield Park eludes me. That said, perhaps this is the sort of thing that professionals in literary criticism expect; indeed, I've read a lot worse, so perhaps I should only say that I don't recommend it to most people. Gard does have a very worthwhile overall point, though. He argues that, contrary to what literary historians may argue, it is not necessary to do extensive research into Austen's life and times to understand her works. They are clear as they stand. I personally have read a number of the types of books that he mentions, like Alison Sulloway's Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood, which I liked and Gard doesn't. I would agree with him that such reading is not necessary to understand Austen's work, although it can be interesting. I have an interest in the period beyond my enjoyment of Jane Austen, so I found it fascinating, but I don't think that I suddenly understand the books much better. I thank Gard for his confidence in common readers.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
On Gard: A Labored Austen Tribute,
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This review is from: Jane Austen's Novels: The Art of Clarity (Paperback)
The Yale University Press specializes in cogent academic commentaries. Roger Gard's Jane Austen's Novels: the Art of Clarity is a worthy addition to that tradition. However, the book was somewhat disappointing in its method and writing style. See the reviews by Elizabeth A. Root and Tracey Marks, with whom I agree. Gard assumes a working familiarity with the novels; this is not a hornbook for novices. His style is also dense, more so than lay readers of Austen may find comfortable. The `art of clarity' in his subtitle is Austen's, not his.Still, there is much to recommend. Gard, a former Reader at Oxford, not only knows his subject, but delights in it. This is a welcome change from the ideologic criticism of feminists and more radical theorists who fancy themselves Jane-ites, but miss much of the artistry, complexity of plot structure, and good humor that undergirds Austen's reputation. He also avoids the error of treating the novels as one world, with interchangable characters; his focus on each novel as a discrete work of art is critically correct, and it allows him to trace the development of Austen as an artist. I recommend the book for the serious student of Austen.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely NOT recommended!,
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This review is from: Jane Austen's Novels: The Art of Clarity (Paperback)
As an instructor of Jane Austen courses and writer of Austen-related fiction, I have read several dozen books about Jane Austen and her novels. This is definitely one of the least worthwhile. Ironically, the subtitle "The Art of Clarity" is just as ironic as the opening line of "Pride and Prejudice". The author does NOT write clearly, and takes entire chapters to make a few very weak points (and often talks around a subject without clearly making any point at all!). Fans of Jane Austen seeking greater illumination about her novels would benefit by reading instead Tony Tanner's Jane Austen, Craik's Jane Austen: The Six Novels, Gill and Gregory's Mastering the Novels of Jane Austen, and many others.
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