This excellent cradle-to-grave biography of a much loved novelist who goes in and out of fashion captures her alarming habits and tormented love affairsIn 1971 the author Barbara Pym was at her day job at the International African Institute when she noticed “Mr C” laboriously attacking his lunchtime sandwich with a knife and fork. Pym made a mental note of the detail before asking herself ruefully, “Oh why can’t I write about things like that any more – why is this kind of thing no longer acceptable?” Ten years earlier, Jonathan Cape had dumped her after her sixth book on the grounds that her brand of anthropological observation of English social manners was old lady-ish, dull and didn’t sell. As an extra humiliation, no other publishing house had been interested in picking up Miss Pym: books built on “the daily round of trivial things” could hardly compete with Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal or, if you were feeling fancy, Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Jonathan Cape had even published John Lennon (Pym liked the Beatles, but still). Clearly there was no place in contemporary literature for Mr C and his oddly formal way with a sandwich.There is nothing unusual about major minor novelists having a disappointing and disproportionate decline, followed by a posthumous flowering in reputation and sales. What’s unusual about Pym is that her phoenix moment came while she was still alive. In 1977 the Times Literary Supplement asked well-known... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-08 06:30:07 UTC ]
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This excellent cradle-to-grave biography of a much loved novelist who goes in and out of fashion captures her alarming habits and tormented love affairsIn 1971 the author Barbara Pym was at her day job at the International African Institute when she noticed “Mr C” laboriously attacking his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-08 06:30:07 UTC ]
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Natalie Jenner’s debut novel is no Jane Austen work, but it does offer plenty of delights. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-06-09 16:11:41 UTC ]
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A deliciously original study of the cheap editions of Pride and Prejudice and other novels – ignored by literary scholars – casts new light on her readershipJane Austen aficionados think that they know the story of their favourite author’s posthumous dis-appearance and then re-emergence. For... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-12-11 07:30:31 UTC ]
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Jessica Ball, author of 'Miss Austen Investigates: The Hapless Milliner,' is hardly the only writer to profess a passion for libraries. Jane Austen, the heroine of her novel, adored them. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
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For anyone who's ever wanted to read about Elizabeth Bennett riding dragons and Elinore Dashwood solving murders, Julia Seales, the author of 'A Most Agreeable Murder', selects 10 inventive Jane Austen riffs. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-07-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel died last September at age 70, but a memorial service just this week revealed something of use to those who miss her words. The Guardian’s Saturday Paper will be publishing excerpts from an unpublished project mashing together Jane Austen’s works. “She was having the greatest fun... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-21 16:03:28 UTC ]
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Wolf Hall trilogy author remembered at memorial service at Southwark cathedral on ThursdayHilary Mantel, the celebrated author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, was working on a “mashup” of Jane Austen novels when she died suddenly, her literary agent told a packed memorial service at Southwark... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-20 17:46:20 UTC ]
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If you’re a literary genius, you’ve got it easy—right? Wrong. Even Jane Austen, indisputably one of the greatest novelists in the English language, spent years struggling to be published and became so dispirited that there were moments when she almost walked away. The story begins with an... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-18 09:54:04 UTC ]
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The Netflix adaptation is yet more proof of the long-overlooked novel's newfound popularity. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-07-14 12:00:30 UTC ]
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I cooked my way through a cookbook inspired by Jane Austen's novels, and it opened up the world of the books to me. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-06-30 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Pym’s novels — witty tales of domestic life in British villages — have been compared to the works of Jane Austen. I see a link to Joyce, too. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-06-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In exhibit #3,767 of ginned-up cancel culture panic, The Daily Mail is reporting that Stirling University in Scotland… …has removed Jane Austen [from a literature course] to help “decolonise the curriculum” and “contribute increased diversity” on the syllabus. Stirling University’s English... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-04-06 15:14:17 UTC ]
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‘Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden’ whisks readers to Cambridge, Wales and Venice, in the company of a delightful gang of scholars. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-09-10 12:00:00 UTC ]
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It is a truth universally acknowledged . . . that Northanger Abbey is less quotable than Pride and Prejudice. Nevertheless, Northanger Abbey is the latest of Austen’s six novels to be adapted into an illustrated children’s book for the Awesomely Austen: Illustrated and Retold series. The text of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-01 17:54:13 UTC ]
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It is a truth universally acknowledged . . . that the CW is developing an anthology series inspired by Jane Austen’s works! The series, titled Modern Austen, will tackle a different Jane Austen novel each season and reimagine it as six modern stories. Modern Austen’s first season will set Pride... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-13 16:26:19 UTC ]
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Rachel Cohen never imagined that she would experience a stretch of time in which she only wanted to read Austen. Until it happened. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-07-22 22:40:11 UTC ]
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Rachel Cohen never imagined that she would experience a stretch of time in which she only wanted to read Austen. Until it happened. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-07-22 22:40:11 UTC ]
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Rachel Cohen never imagined that she would experience a stretch of time in which she only wanted to read Austen. Until it happened. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-07-22 22:40:00 UTC ]
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Through the trials of new motherhood and the loss of a parent, Rachel Cohen read the English novelist exclusively. “Austen Years” is her memoir of the experience. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-07-21 09:00:08 UTC ]
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From about 1890 to 1940, a half century of ultra-cheap editions of Jane Austen’s novels aimed explicitly at educating the working poor. Because these ill-printed and shabby versions of her stories never made it into the scholarly libraries that safeguard “important” editions, the hardscrabble... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-04 09:49:29 UTC ]
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