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Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity
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In " Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity, "Janine Barchas " "makes the bold assertion that Jane Austen's novels allude to actual high-profile politicians and contemporary celebrities as well as to famous historical figures and landed estates. Barchas is the first scholar to conduct extensive research into the names and locations in Austen's fic
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Hardcover, 336 pages
Published
August 20th 2012
by Johns Hopkins University Press
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Recently I realised how much I miss reading academic texts. I miss being challenged on my interpretations and readings from well-researched academics and diving further between the lines of my favourite novels.
And so, I remembered this book that has been collecting dust on my shelf since I wrote my dissertation on Jane Austen. In many ways, my dissertation scared me off Austen-scholars, not because I didn't like what they had to say, but because I associated them with that half year of isolated ...more
And so, I remembered this book that has been collecting dust on my shelf since I wrote my dissertation on Jane Austen. In many ways, my dissertation scared me off Austen-scholars, not because I didn't like what they had to say, but because I associated them with that half year of isolated ...more
This was a fascinating and readable thesis. In all my years of Jane Austen studies, reading literary criticism and analyses, and biographies, I had wondered, like many people, did Jane Austen use real people and incidents for her wonderful stories? The generally accepted theory has been no, and family accounts seemed to reinforce this, however, all authors have ideas and they get those ideas from real life. Why not Jane Austen?
In Debrett’s The Peerage as well as The Navy List, Barchas discovers ...more
In Debrett’s The Peerage as well as The Navy List, Barchas discovers ...more
This books upends my usual annoyance with a lot of Austen scholarship, the theme that Austen was a shy homebody whose books are timeless because they are in a sealed bubble of the Real Housewives of Rural Vicarages. Instead, this was someone who was not only plugged into world affairs (brothers in the upper ranks of the active navy, connections to the French Revolution, extremely well read in English history, consumer of celebrity news), but perfectly willing and able to tap references to enhanc
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Mar 03, 2018
Catie
marked it as to-read
Recommendation from IG (@teawithdarcy) - 2/20/2018
This was amazing. If you enjoy Jane Austen, you should read this -- it makes such a difference to the reading of the novels, if you can understand all these little details in the background.
Modern readers also tend to think of Jane as writing her books in a bit of a social vacuum – her writing advice of “3 or 4 Families in a Country Village is the very thing to work on” is often quoted. The author of Matters of Fact in Jane Austen thinks we’ve been looking at this all the wrong way. While Jane’s books sold well enough in her lifetime, they fell out of print and her reputation was not established until they were reprinted in the 1830s. Even in that short period of time, the signific
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One of the more (intellectually) exciting Austen books I've read in a while. It's the rare academic book where I start reading passages to whomever is nearby, regardless of their background or interest in the subject.
Devoney Looser has an excellent review of it and Claudia Johnson's Austen book (also published by Chicago). I'm currently reading the Johnson, which so far is also fabulous.
Here's Looser's LARB piece:
http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.ph... ...more
Devoney Looser has an excellent review of it and Claudia Johnson's Austen book (also published by Chicago). I'm currently reading the Johnson, which so far is also fabulous.
Here's Looser's LARB piece:
http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.ph... ...more
Janine Barchas, AM'90, PhD'95
Author
From the author: "This book makes the bold assertion that Jane Austen’s novels allude to actual high-profile politicians and contemporary celebrities as well as to famous historical figures and landed estates. Barchas is the first scholar to conduct extensive research into the names and locations in Austen’s fiction by taking full advantage of the explosion of archival materials now available online. According to Barchas, Austen plays confidently with the tensi ...more
Author
From the author: "This book makes the bold assertion that Jane Austen’s novels allude to actual high-profile politicians and contemporary celebrities as well as to famous historical figures and landed estates. Barchas is the first scholar to conduct extensive research into the names and locations in Austen’s fiction by taking full advantage of the explosion of archival materials now available online. According to Barchas, Austen plays confidently with the tensi ...more
I've had the pleasure of reviewing this book: Looser, Devoney. “The State of the Union of Jane Austen, Fact and Fiction” (Review essay). Los Angeles Review of Books (27 Jan 2013): n. pag. Web. http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.ph....
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