Product Description

Leading scholars present a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to Jane Austen's works in the contexts of her contemporary world, and of present-day critical discourse. Besides discussions of Austen's novels and letters, there are essays on religion, politics, class consciousness, publishing practices, domestic economy, style in the novels and the significance of her juvenile works. A chronology provides biographical information, and assessments of the history of Austen criticism highlight the most interesting recent studies in a vast field of critical diversity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43473 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 267 pages

Review
"All undergraduate and graduate libraries will want this volume." D.L. Patey, Choice

"The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster, offers a number of distinctly different views on Austen (and the Austen `industry') by a nice mix of well known and emerging Austen scholars. Well organized around large, nearly onotlogical categories such as `money', `class', `religion and politics' as well as the letters and Austen `cults and cultures', this volume is a fine companion not only for the recently initiated, but also for those who have spent many years luxuriating with Austen's fiction." Joseph W. Childers

"...the Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen supplies us with just the kind of ionformation we need to become sharper, more appreciative readers of her. This book summarizes and extends our knowledge, surveys the critical and biographical fields, and suggests fresh readings...." Jocelyn Harris, Letters in Canada

Customer Reviews

Useful - but within reason
I have to admit from the outset here, that I am a confirmed Janeite, I have an Austen discussion list, and I have read Austen's novels over and over again. So that may well colour what you feel about this review.

This book probably has a limited readership. Austen is still a popular author today - the string of recent movie adaptations and their wild popularity has proven that. It helps too that Austen's books can still be read these days and enjoyed without any help - after all language-wise there isn't slang and metre that puts people off Shakespeare - and her themes of love and marriage are pertinent to any age.

Yet a companion like this is really useful for there were still little in-jokes which Austen uses - her contemporary readers would have understood these without further explanation, but for us we can do with a bit more background to the times she was living in. The most useful chapters for this are 7, 8 and 9 which deal with class, money and Religion and Politics. You don't need to read to understand, but if you want to enjoy Austen's irony in greater depth they make very useful reading.

This is a neat little book if you are not sure if you want to read more on Austen either in Critical literature or biographically. It has 12 chapters in all which offer subjects ranging from the chronology of her life and work, to a good essay on her letters and style. I didn't much enjoy the chapter on Style but I was put off by the graphs in that one (don't ask!). You will pleased to know that this doesn't lack for academic credentials, but it isn't too forcefully academic. I don't think you would enjoy this book at all if you haven't read all of Austen's works, and some idea of their various characters.

So, if you are looking for a handy little volume and a quick read on Austen, her life and times then this is very worthwhile indeed. Other books on Austen that might you enjoy are Claire Tomalin's biography 'Jane Austen - a life' which is excellent. Amanda Vickery's book "The Gentleman's Daughters" is a beautifully researched and written piece on woman's lives in Austen's time and of Austen's class (even using some of her letters).

Absolutely necessary for anyone researching Austen scholastically
I used this book when I was writing a thesis on Austen. The chapters are each broken into themes (Money, Class, etc.) for easy reference, and there is an extensive index. The book can be uneven because each chapter is written by a different author. Still, the authors represented are among the most prominent Austen authorities in the world.

After the Novels....
Once the dedicated Jane Austen fan has read the six finished novels, the so-called Juvenalia, the novel fragments, and the letters, the next best thing is to read what others have said about her life and her body of work. "The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen" offers thirteen essays by Jane Austen scholars that provide a little depth or an alternate vantage point on Austen and her work.

The essays address a variety of topics, beginning with a chronology of her life; progressing through some literary criticism of the novels, juvenalia, short fiction, and letters; and including some specialized discussion of class, money, and the cult of Jane Austen.

This reviewer found the essay on "The Professional Woman Author" to be especially interesting. Jan Fegus describes the publishing process of the day and narrates Austen's struggle to get her books into print. In the process, she details just how little money Jane Austen realized from her writing in her own lifetime.

Carol Houlihan Flynn goes behind the obvious content of Jane Austen's letters to discover a woman determined to apply her rather subversive intellect to the mundane task of communicating with family and friends. The often wickedly observant Austen of the letters bears a close resemblance to the young and unorthodox author that Margaret Anne Doody finds in her essay on "The Short Fiction". Isobel Grundy, in "Jane Austen and literary traditions", finds that her unsystematic education caused her to find much of her own way in her writing style.

"The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen" may be a bit dry for the general reader. It is highly recommended to the dedicated Jane Austen fan, who should find much to entertain or enlighten.