Customer Reviews

Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen

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I treasure this book. Reading Fay Weldon is like having a very best friend who's read everything you love, has brilliant insights into literature and life, and is absolutely hilarious. She meets that need the passionate reader feels at the end of a wonderful book, to discuss it with someone whose opinion is worth having.

"Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen" takes the form of letters from a writer to her niece, Alice, who's complained of being forced (!) to read Jane Austen. (I remember how utterly lame I thought PRIDE AND PREJUDICE was when I was 13--nobody had explained to us that it was supposed to be funny! Thank God I tried it again years later.) In the course of trying to make Austen (and all literature) accessible to her niece, the writer takes her on a marvelous journey into the city of the imagination.

I keep starting sentences and then deleting them, because writing accurately about this book is tricky. Its genius is perhaps that the book illuminates the relationship of writer to reader without being dry or academic--it is, in fact, thoroughly entertaining.

If you LOVE books, if you spent half your childhood curled up in some corner reading, if you try to foist books onto your friends--you will recognize the city into which Weldon leads you, and you will feel welcomed and at home.

All in all, a fab read. Treat yourself!

There's a national debate going on in my country concerning the value and relevance of literature in modern society. Students are liberally encouraged by their schools to drop literature from their curriculum in favour of more examination friendly subjects to increase their chances of achieving the maximum aggregate score for their "O" and "A" levels. So, it is not without some irony that I should be reading Fay Weldon's "Letters to Alice On First Reading Jane Austen" as my introduction to this author's works. Well, I was completely blown away by its first chapter/letter entitled "The City of Invention" which alone is worth the price of the book and....says it all. The imagery she uses in distinguishing the different genres in writing as well as the intrinsic or superficial merits of each form of writing is absolutely breathtaking. In it, she hints at why Shakespeare in the "city of invention" is that castle that marks the skyline and a compulsory stop for every tour group making the rounds of the "city". Weldon is eloquent, witty and wickedly funny with her pen. While she never quite hits the high of that first chapter again, she offers some rare and valuable insight into why Austen is read even today. Great literature has the power when read (whether quietly or aloud) to touch the masses by revealing the universality of some home truths or values they espouse. Although Austen fans will be delighted to see their favourite characters come to live in Weldon's world, you don't have to like Jane Austen to enjoy this book. To fellow Singaporeans sceptical about the value of literature in schools, my advice is "read this and you will see how absurd the question really is". No matter if you disagree after reading the book, b'cos you would have had a jolly good time. Great stuff. Truly.

Written in the form of witty letters to a niece taking an undergraduate English Lit course, this book attempts to bring insight to the work of Jane Austen in particular and to answer those who question the relevance of literature in general. First published in 1984, there is no mention of deconstruction's effect on academic departments, but otherwise the author seems to address most issues pertinent to the reading and writing of fiction, beginning with a wonderful chapter on the lovely metaphoric City of Invention. Elsewhere, Weldon discusses non-literature, Latin, a writer's relatives and friends, feminism, literary truth, critics and invention. Austen is here as well,and the author enlightens with her discussions of Austen's life, times, works, style and death. There are many wonderful passages, and I especially admired the analyses of Austen's work, but I would have liked more of this, and in more detail. At one point the author writes: "[Jane Austen] knows how to end a scene, an episode, a chapter, before beginning the next: when to allow the audience to rest, when to and how to underline a statement, when to mark time with idle paragraphs, allowing what went before to settle, before requiring it to inform what comes next. It is a very modern technique. It requires ... consciousness of audience, and audience reaction." It should be evident from that passage that Weldon is an elegant, insightful and articulate writer, and I would have *loved* to have seen extended examples and analysis of specific Austen passages to illustrate the points made in the preceding excerpt.

Ultimately, I didn't think the niece's subplot worked. Weldon first advises her not to attempt to write a novel, and then advises her to write it, and then advises her about dealing with the publisher when the novel is not only published but very successful. What's Weldon's greater meaning? Why would this undergrad's novel be published and who is reading it? Is it a condemnation or just a device to drive the conceit?

I learned a lot about Jane Austen and about writing, and got some help for the next time someone tells me it's a waste of time to read a novel. Very enjoyable and highly recommended.

Borrowed from a friend during my Jane Austen period, this book so delighted and inspired that it is now a dog-eared resident of my nightstand. As a neophyte pro-writer, I often have people ask me how I made the transition from "wanna-be" to "real" writer. This book was an important part of that process.

I thought someone ought to give fair warning to diehard "Jane Fans" that this book is not so much about Jane Austen as it is about coming of age and the relationship between two different generations. Jane is not its main focus. Borrow it from your local library, if they have it, but I wouldn't recommend buying it.

I stumbled across Fay Weldon in researching the 1980 BBC miniseries adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (BBC, 1980) starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul. Weldon wrote the screenplay for the adaptation so I had high expectations for her book, "Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen (Weldon, Fay)." I was expecting something witty, eloquent, and thoughtful. And I got that. However, I felt that the book was an interesting exposition on the importance and relevance of literature and writing (in epistolary format) with some Jane Austen thrown in the plot mix (not what I expected). I expected more on Austen.

The first chapter on the "City of Invention" was thought provoking and elegantly stated (read the book, if only for this chapter). In her effort to weave in the subplot of her niece's book, I think that Weldon falls short of really selling her niece (and me) on Austen. I expected to read more of Weldon's analysis of Austen's works and less of the "advice" on the niece's book. On the other hand, Weldon's passion for books really comes through in the letters. She sold me on the merits of reading and writing great literature. I will be picking up some of the other authors that she recommended.

* If you are a lover of literature or a writer (especially an aspiring writer), you will enjoy reading this book. If you are specifically looking to dip your toes into Austen's work and related topics, I'd recommend looking elsewhere. Perhaps Natalie Tyler's book, "The Friendly Jane Austen: A Well-Mannered Introduction to a Lady of Sense and Sensibility." BTW - Weldon is interviewed and referenced in this work. If you are interested in another epistolary book by a passionate reader/writer, I'd recommend "84, Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff.

I loved this book when it first came out years ago, and it still makes me laugh, as Jane Austin still makes me laugh. Fay Weldon is one of the few writers I know of who has the wit and the irony that we Austin-lovers look for. Letters to Alice is wise and insightful; read it!

As an educated and prolific writer,Fay Weldon does inspire with some passages about literature in general. But, my taste for following her advice was nearly stamped out by her autocratic behavior in "helping" her niece. If I were her niece, Alice,I would have burned all succeeding letters from this "aunt" after the first. I found the aunt condescending, hippocritical, and boorish. Her efforts appear self-serving and full of her own rightous opinions. The aunt makes pointed remarks criticizing the intellectual capacity of her niece and her certain stupidity. The aunt never asks once for thoughts from Alice which magnifies her opinion that Alice has nothing to contribute and she, the aunt, knows best. Haven't we all tuned out a relative or professor who lauds their self-rightous behavior over us? It is all about what she, the aunt, feels is best and absolute. Furthermore, in a letter to Alice's mother, Fay makes a point of belittling her and her husband and lies about encouraging Alice to write a novel. No wonder they do not like having her around.
In discussing my feelings about this book with a friend, who has a degree in English Lit, she points out that the aunt is being ironic. I am sorry, I do not see that style. If that were the case, then I feel her title and the endorsements are misleading. There are some insights into understanding Jane Austen, which is the reason for reading this book as part of a Jane Austen book group. I found the writing far to irritating beyond that to care about the "advice" to Alice.