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Summary
Summary
Jane mania is upon us, with almost the whole Austen canon now gorgeously filmed, her classic novels captivating today's sensibility, and a faux Miss Austen herself featured in an ongoing mystery series. Both diehard addicts and new converts to the cult will find endless revelations and witty insights in The Friendly Jane Austen, the latest in the enormously successful Friendly pop reference series. Quizzes, complete guides to every novel and favorite character, eye-catching illustrations, interviews with many from Austen scholars to T. C. Boyle to Miss Manners, a filmography and bibliography, and browsable quotes and sidebars throughout will help you:* Hit the highlights of Jane's juvenilia * Learn about the man who almost won Jane's hand * Find out how to tell a rake from a rattle (hint: they're both rascals) * Ponder the motif of decapitation in Jane's life * Bone up on the biggest controversy among Janeites For the millions who re-read Pride and Prejudice each year, own Sense and Sensibility on video, and watch Clueless for its Emma subtext, this is an essential companion and the holiday gift of choice.
Author Notes
Natalie Tyler has been a devoted Jane Austen scholar and lecturer for more than a decade. She is currently a professor at Ohio State University.
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
With yet another wave of Jane Austen mania about to hit (new film versions of Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey are scheduled to open within the next year), this guide to all things Jane is not only timely but a lively romp through Austen's world, full of fun facts and interesting details. The casual reader will enjoy learning about Austen's family life and her novels, and serious Austen fans will delight in interviews with Austen experts, quizzes that will test their knowledge of even the most minute details in the novels, and references to fine points that touch upon the subtlety in Austen's characterizations. With the exception of an oversimplified quiz intended to categorize the different kinds of Austen fans, the book is a well-written, thoughtful, and accessible introduction to Austen. At the end of the book, Tyler states that the best Austen biographies "do not present conclusions so much as possibilities," and the same is true of her engaging overview of Jane Austen's life, works, and influence. --Kristine Huntley
Library Journal Review
Like an Austen novel, the depths of this work are easy to miss in its light tone, which screens a panoply of Austen paraphernalia. Part of the "Friendly" pop reference series, this title marries in-depth information about Jane Austen's work and world with an easy-to-read and fun format. Full of quizzes, illustrations, quotes, and interviews with scholars and actors, this work can be read straight through or dipped into at leisure. Tyler provides the reader with concise, valuable information on Austen's juvenilia, her novels, and the films based on those novels. Also included are notes on period ideas and items that will increase the reader's understanding and appreciation of the novels, among them recipes for syllabub and Bakewell pudding and the differences between a rake and a rattle. This title will be welcome reading for students and Austen fans alike. Recommended for public libraries.ÄKaren E. Sadowski, Simmons Coll. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Preface | p. xvii |
| On Jane Austen | p. 1 |
| How Do We Love Jane Austen? Let Us Count the Ways | p. 7 |
| Are You a Janeite? | p. 11 |
| Do You Belong to the School of Gentle Jane? | p. 11 |
| Do You Belong to the Ironic Jane School? | p. 12 |
| Do You Belong to the Subversive Jane School? | p. 12 |
| Part I Early Life and Juvenilia | p. 15 |
| Early Life and Family | p. 17 |
| Steventon: The Austen Family | p. 17 |
| Bringing Up Baby | p. 17 |
| A Pruned Family Tree: Jane Austen's Immediate Family | p. 19 |
| Life at the Steventon Rectory | p. 24 |
| The Family Appearance | p. 26 |
| "Cacoethes Scribendi": The Incurable Itch to Write | p. 27 |
| The Abbey School | p. 28 |
| Dancing Days and Juvenilia | p. 31 |
| Highlights of the Juvenilia | p. 31 |
| Authorial Apprenticeship and Ridiculous Novels | p. 34 |
| The Loiterer | p. 35 |
| Volume the First: Pulp Fiction | p. 36 |
| Frederic and Elfrida: An Auspicious Debut | p. 37 |
| Decapitations Are Us: Austen's Early Motif of Beheadings | p. 38 |
| "My Hat, on Which My Principal Hopes of Happiness Depend" | p. 39 |
| Volume the Second: "Sallies, Bonmots and Repartees" | p. 40 |
| Love and Freindship | p. 40 |
| The History of England | p. 41 |
| Revolutions | p. 43 |
| Volume the Third: Evelyn and Catherine, or The Bower | p. 43 |
| Lady Susan | p. 44 |
| Mrs. Leigh-Perrot: Austen's Brush with Incarceration and Other Scandals | p. 46 |
| A Recipe for Syllabub | p. 47 |
| Tom Lefroy, Harris Bigg-Wither, and Other Suitors | p. 48 |
| Leaving Steventon | p. 51 |
| Bath | p. 51 |
| Mr. Austen Exits Life's Pulpit | p. 53 |
| Regina Barreca: Jane Austen as "Bad Girl" | p. 54 |
| The Watsons | p. 57 |
| The Marriage Plot | p. 58 |
| Part II Major Works | p. 63 |
| Northanger Abbey | p. 65 |
| Publication: A Fraught Road | p. 67 |
| Rakes and Rattles | p. 68 |
| "Learning to Love a Hyacinth" | p. 69 |
| Joan Vredenburgh on Bath and General Tilney | p. 71 |
| The Nature of Gothic Novels | p. 73 |
| David Riede on Jane Austen and Romanticism | p. 75 |
| "A Neighborhood of Voluntary Spies" | p. 77 |
| A Very Respectable Man, Though His Name Was Richard | p. 79 |
| John Thorpe's Horse and Gig | p. 80 |
| Henry Tilney's Knowledge of Muslin | p. 81 |
| QUIZ: Letter Writing in the Novels | p. 82 |
| John Thorpe and Henry Tilney on Mrs. Radcliffe | p. 84 |
| Jim Buckley on General Tilney's Rumford Fireplace | p. 85 |
| Money | p. 86 |
| Average Income, England and Wales, 1803 | p. 87 |
| "The Tell-Tale Compression of the Pages" | p. 89 |
| Sense and Sensibility | p. 90 |
| The Novels of Sensibility | p. 92 |
| The Dangers of Sensibility | p. 92 |
| Sense and Sensibility: A Checklist | p. 93 |
| James Battersby on Jane Austen and the Eighteenth Century | p. 95 |
| Georgian London | p. 97 |
| Harriet Walter on Fanny Dashwood | p. 99 |
| Fanny Dashwood and King Lear's Daughters | p. 101 |
| QUIZ: Who Said That? Great Lines from Jane Austen's Novels | p. 102 |
| Elinor Dashwood: Governor of Her Own Feelings | p. 104 |
| The Madness of Marianne | p. 106 |
| Cowper and Crabbe | p. 108 |
| Lucy Steele | p. 109 |
| Sexy Men | p. 109 |
| Weddings | p. 111 |
| Pride and Prejudice | p. 113 |
| The Famous First Sentence | p. 115 |
| The Publication History of Pride and Prejudice | p. 115 |
| Primogeniture and Entailment | p. 117 |
| Accomplishments and Eligibility | p. 117 |
| Veronica Leahy on Conduct Literature | p. 119 |
| Walking | p. 122 |
| QUIZ: Do Appearances Deceive? | p. 124 |
| Fay Weldon on Jane Austen | p. 126 |
| Clergymen: Ridiculous and Sublime | p. 128 |
| Mr. Bennet | p. 129 |
| The Liveliness of Your Mind | p. 131 |
| Darcy and Pemberley | p. 134 |
| Jane Bennet | p. 135 |
| Elizabeth Bennet | p. 136 |
| Mary Bennet | p. 137 |
| Dr. Samuel Johnson | p. 138 |
| Mansfield Park | p. 140 |
| The Unbearable Loneliness of Being Fanny Price | p. 143 |
| The Servant Problem | p. 143 |
| Mark Conroy on Jane Austen's Popularity | p. 145 |
| Chawton: An Intense Burst of Writing | p. 147 |
| Anna Massey | p. 150 |
| QUIZ: Food in Jane Austen | p. 151 |
| T. Coraghessan Boyle | p. 152 |
| Home Theatricals: Lovers' Vows | p. 154 |
| Phoebe Spinrad on Mothers and Fathers in Austen's Novels | p. 155 |
| The British Empire | p. 159 |
| Fanny Wars | p. 161 |
| Squalor in Portsmouth | p. 163 |
| Emma | p. 165 |
| "Handsome, Clever, and Rich" | p. 168 |
| Joan Wolf on the Regency Period | p. 170 |
| Judith Martin: "Miss Manners" on Jane Austen | p. 174 |
| Who Is Vulgar and How to Avoid Vulgarity | p. 176 |
| Ten Surefire Ways to Be Vulgar | p. 179 |
| Mrs. Goddard's School | p. 181 |
| A Fling at the Slave Trade | p. 182 |
| "Caro Sposo" | p. 184 |
| On Becoming a Governess | p. 184 |
| Is Emma Gay? | p. 186 |
| Why Does Frank Churchill Change His Name? | p. 187 |
| What Is a Natural Child? | p. 188 |
| Edith Lank on Jane Austen | p. 189 |
| Edith Lank: A Theory on Harriet Smith's Parentage | p. 191 |
| Mr. Woodhouse | p. 193 |
| Phyllida Law on Mrs. Bates | p. 194 |
| Prunella Scales on Miss Bates | p. 196 |
| Nieces and Nephews | p. 197 |
| Persuasion | p. 200 |
| Marlene Longenecker on Jane Austen and Feminism | p. 202 |
| Quiz: Reading and Readers in Jane Austen | p. 204 |
| Jan Fergus on Whiners and Complainers | p. 206 |
| Sir Walter Elliot | p. 208 |
| Class | p. 209 |
| The Baronetage and the Peerage | p. 211 |
| Mrs. Smith | p. 212 |
| Jane Smiley on Jane Austen | p. 213 |
| The Famous Final Sentence of Persuasion | p. 216 |
| Sanditon: The Final Year | p. 219 |
| Nineteenth-Century Wellville | p. 220 |
| Hypochondriacs | p. 221 |
| The Circulating Library | p. 222 |
| Quiz: Illnesses and Hypochondria | p. 224 |
| Sir Edward Denham, Bart | p. 225 |
| What Jane Austen Earned from her Books During Her Lifetime | p. 227 |
| Jane Austen's Illness and Death | p. 227 |
| Cassandra's Conflagration | p. 228 |
| Some Dissenting Views on Jane Austen | p. 230 |
| John McAleer on Ancestry and Biography | p. 232 |
| Part III The Legacy | p. 235 |
| Jane Austen in the Twentieth Century | p. 237 |
| The Janeites | p. 237 |
| Jennifer Cruisie on Jane Austen as the Mother of the Modern Romance Novel | p. 240 |
| Soap Opera Divas on Jane Austen | p. 242 |
| Alton Abbey and Jane Austen Retreats | p. 243 |
| Elsa Solender on the Jane Austen Society of North America | p. 244 |
| All About JASNA | p. 247 |
| The Annual General Meeting of JASNA | p. 248 |
| Cyber Jane: Austen Sites on the Internet | p. 250 |
| Dramatizations of the Novels | p. 250 |
| Emily Auerbach: The Courage to Write--Women Novelists and Poets | p. 252 |
| Tobacco Cards: Jane Austen Is Gaining on Ty Cobb | p. 254 |
| Jane Austen Books: A Bookstore | p. 255 |
| Film Adaptations | p. 256 |
| Linda Mizejewski on Austen and the Woman's Film | p. 256 |
| Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield on Jane Austen in Hollywood | p. 258 |
| Feature Films and Video Adaptations: A Selection | p. 260 |
| Douglas McGrath on His Film Emma | p. 267 |
| Continuations, Sequels, and Spin-offs | p. 270 |
| Julia Barrett on Jane Austen Sequels | p. 271 |
| Stephanie Barron on Jane Austen as Detective | p. 272 |
| Sequels and Spin-offs: A Select List | p. 275 |
| Bibliography | p. 279 |
| Barry Roth, Bibliographer of Jane Austen Studies | p. 279 |
| Select Bibliography | p. 281 |
| Periodicals | p. 284 |
| Interviews | p. 285 |
| Answers to Quizzes | p. 287 |
| Index | p. 291 |
| Illustration Credits | p. 299 |
