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Jane Austen
Originally published in 1935, this volume contains the text of the Leslie Stephen Lecture for that year, delivered by Lord David Cecil at the University of Cambridge. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Jane Austen's life, career and characters.
42 pages, Hardcover
First published November 6, 2013
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July 25, 2022
“If I were in doubt as to the wisdom of one of my actions I should not consult Flaubert or Dostoevsky. The opinion of Balzac or Dickens would carry little weight with me: were Stendhal to rebuke me, it would only convince me I had done right: even in the judgment of Tolstoy I should not put complete confidence. But I should be seriously upset, I should worry for weeks and weeks, if I incurred the disapproval of Jane Austen” (43).
What a treat of a printed lecture by the 20th century scholar Lord David Cecil! Somehow I learned that he was the father of my favorite PG Wodehouse narrator Jonathan Cecil, so I snapped up this book from the library when I was browsing for Jane Austen content. Cecil gives JA her full due as a brilliant novelist and explores how the “small” scope of her novelistic content was part of her art. By choosing to write about the domestic scope of relational ties, Austen was able to put her “lucid, knife-edged” mind to work in making the particular universal. We all know a Miss Bates type character and yet Miss Bates herself is so vivid, so real in imagination’s eye that she could be alive.
There is a lot more to enjoy in this and it’s so short that it’s worth re-reading.
What a treat of a printed lecture by the 20th century scholar Lord David Cecil! Somehow I learned that he was the father of my favorite PG Wodehouse narrator Jonathan Cecil, so I snapped up this book from the library when I was browsing for Jane Austen content. Cecil gives JA her full due as a brilliant novelist and explores how the “small” scope of her novelistic content was part of her art. By choosing to write about the domestic scope of relational ties, Austen was able to put her “lucid, knife-edged” mind to work in making the particular universal. We all know a Miss Bates type character and yet Miss Bates herself is so vivid, so real in imagination’s eye that she could be alive.
There is a lot more to enjoy in this and it’s so short that it’s worth re-reading.
Displaying 1 of 1 review