Readings on Jane Austen

by Clarice Swisher (Editor)

Critical essays discuss Jane Austen and her works.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books

206 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[~Geektastic~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this was a nice, tidy little collection of essays on a range of topics in Jane Austen’s works. Many of them had some very good points to make and were well written, but were shortened from their original versions, making them bite-sized snacks when I wanted a full course meal. Many of them ended up boiled down to what are essentially sound bites, with each paragraph ending in ellipsis…Thus making me frustrated at a lack of closure with each thought... And making me wish I could get my hands on the originals…(annoying, isn’t it?)

The opening chapter is a biographical sketch of Austen, to give a perspective on the work I suppose. It has been stated by another Austen critic, Richard Jenkyns, in a different volume, that Austen is one of those authors especially prone to be interpreted by the “simple biographical method.” I tend to agree, and I’ve read very few collections of examinations and appreciations that don’t include a biographical chapter somewhere, as her life is constantly brought forward in relation to her work; even more so, I think, than many other writers. However, if someone is going to approach a work of criticism like Readings on Jane Austen, which is accessible but very specific, I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t already be somewhat familiar with what has been stated so frequently before, and I wonder why the editor gave up so much space that could have been used to include a few of the other abbreviated essays in their entirety.

One of the standout essays, in both clarity and interest, was AC Bradley’s “Humor in Austen’s Novels.” I’ve always had some difficulty explaining to the non-Austen fans in my life why I like her work so much, and why the movie adaptations often miss the point by bringing the “will-they-won’t-they” romance elements to the fore. But Bradley puts into words (and so simply, too!) what I always have so much trouble articulating:

In her novels, though in varying degrees, Jane Austen regards the characters, good and bad alike, with ironical amusement, because they never see the situation as it really is and as she sees it. This is the deeper source of our unbroken pleasure in reading her. We constantly share her point of view, and are aware of the amusing difference between the fact and its appearance to the actors…

See how easy that is? It’s all about the contrast of expectation and reality, and I heartily agree. Bradley also managed to show me, with the same deceptive clarity, why I’ve always felt that Sense and Sensibility, while possessing characters like Mrs. Jennings and the John Dashwoods, is still an essentially serious book. I won’t go into it in-depth here (what would be the point of recommending this book, after all), but it boils down to the lack of the observational incongruity mentioned in the above excerpt. As we are at the mercy of Elinor for our information, her clarity and perception make the use of irony almost impossible. One of the most ironic (and viciously satiric) episodes in the book, the argument between John and Fanny Dashwood in the second chapter, occurs outside of Elinor’s hearing and thus is filtered through the colder, more distanced eye of the omniscient narrator, who seldom reappears until the very end of the book.( It could also be argued that a great deal of unnecessary weight is added to the overall plot by the awkward inclusion of long-winded dialogue that is the direct result of the novel having been in the epistolary format originally, but I’ll save the longer versions of these arguments for my eventual write-up of S&S.)

Each of the six major works is given at least one essay, but Pride and Prejudice wins for receiving the most attention. The essays contributed to the collection come from writers, critics and enthusiasts of varying levels of credibility, but each one is articulate and well-researched, so I enjoyed them even when I didn’t necessarily agree with their conclusions.

For those who enjoy reading about Austen, this is definitely recommended. If you’re not the kind of person who constantly re-reads her works, and rarely find yourself trying to figure out the psychological dynamics of the Bennet family in your free time, you may want to pass.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book mostly while enjoying some food at a local sports bar, and the book managed to spark a conversation with an entrepreneur who was impressed to see someone who was reading a more serious work (although this is fairly light reading for me) while in public, which sparked a larger and more interesting and not particularly relevant conversation to this book.  At any rate, the fact that someone could view the reading of a fairly introductory series of essays on literary criticism of Jane Austen as a serious book perhaps is a sign of the cultural cachet that literary criticism has in our contemporary world, as well as the general respect given to Jane Austen as a serious writer [1].  There is some irony in this, of course, and the book explores the general lack of seriousness that Austen's work received in the nineteenth century, although the more recent rise of textual criticism and her critical reappraisal as a great writer within the Western literary canon has followed the tenor of those early appreciative essays, something that this book demonstrates with a thoughtful selection of critical essays that demonstrate Austen's skill and her deliberate choice of limitations to write about what she knew best.

This book of essays, which covers about 200 pages of material, seeks to cover Austen's career in full and give an appreciation of all of her major writings and also refer to a few of her more minor ones as well.  The book begins with an introduction to the series that is repeated from previous volumes and a short biography of Austen that is repeated from the previous book I read about readings on Pride & Prejudice.  After this the book contains six chapters with multiple essays apiece.  The first chapter contains three essays that look at the relationship of Jane Austen with her times and her critics as well as Austen's women and how they deal with a conservative society (1).  After this there are three essays that look at some of the themes in Austen's novels, like sex and social life, humor, and her detached approach of social criticism (2).  Then there are two essays that look at the stylistic devices of her novels that create irony and show her appreciation of games (3).  Three essays pay attention to Jane Austen's early novels by showing satire and realism in Northanger Abbey as well as the lack of irony and the importance of minor characters and theme in Sense & Sensibility (4).  Four essays look at the best qualities, clashes and compromises, sigificance of pictures, and the relationship between manners and morals in Pride & Prejudice (5).  The last chapter contains five essays that look at Emma's portraits of people and a heroine with faults, the portrayal of a quiet, complex love in Mansfield Park, and Austen's new kind of novel with the Cinderella theme in Persuasion, all dealing with Austen's late novels.

What can someone expect to get out of a work like this?  This work is aimed at teens and young adults who are becoming familiar with textual criticism and who like the works of Jane Austen.  As this happens to be a fairly large group of people, this book has many potential readers, at least.  The organization of the book into a variety of short and interesting and thought-provoking essays does make this book one that is likely to fulfill its purposes of encouraging serious thought on the writings of Jane Austen and providing some idea of what kind of insights one can gain from novels through taking the style and approach of an author seriously.  There are many writers, of course, where this sort of literary criticism can be useful, and Jane Austen's works as a whole reward deep reading because the narrowness of the world she portrays almost forces a reader to seek additional depth as a way of understanding how it was that Austen could return to the same issues and situations over and over again.  Likewise, this book demonstrates that it is easy to return to Austen again and again and again as well.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2010...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

[Liz]

That Jane Austen was/is AWESOME!!!...wait...I knew that already! Hehehe Seriously though this book is De Bomb! Although I had to return it to the library before returning it...I really should start reading shouldn't I? :P

[T.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly unpretentious