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 half a century after she died in 1817, her books were little known or read. A few discriminating admirers such as George Henry Lewes and Lord Macaulay kept the flame of her reputation burning, but most novelists and novel readers were oblivious to her. Then, in 1869, her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published a memoir about her and the public got interested. Her novels started being republished and widely read. She has never looked back.Janine Barchas’s The Lost Books of Jane Austen puts us right. Her book about books is a beautifully illustrated exploration, indeed compendium, of the popular editions of Austen’s novels that have appeared over the last two centuries. This includes those decades when Austen was supposedly lost from sight. The first chapter is a “vignette” on a copy of Sense and Sensibility, published in 1851 for George Routledge’s Railway Library (books suitable for reading on the train). It cost one shilling and was bought for the 13-year-old Gertrude Wallace, the youngest daughter of a Plymouth naval officer. It is the first of many examples of cheap and popular editions of Austen’s work that kept it alive for ordinary readers and that literary scholars have... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-12-11 07:30:31 UTC ]
Colm Tóibín gives the third installment to the Words Ireland Lecture Series. This modern master discusses the craft of James Joyce—and the idea of craft itself. Is craft a concept more suited to poetry? Could strict ideas around craft actually be a hindrance to novelists and short story writers?... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-04 09:48:28 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has snapped up an “exquisite” memoir about the challenges facing gay men today from acclaimed poet and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year shortlistee Seán Hewitt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 07:03:12 UTC ]
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Bonnier Books UK’s new literary imprint Manilla Press has acquired a "powerful memoir" from debut author Bexy Cameron exploring her childhood in the notorious cult Children of God. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-02 00:29:45 UTC ]
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FEW WRITERS MANAGE to capture the essence of the California that exists beyond the images typically offered up by film and television — palm trees, beaches, gridlock, Hollywood, Kardashians; images the rest of the country seems so willing to accept about us “out here.” Kendra Atleework’s new... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-11-01 18:00:10 UTC ]
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AS AN EXPRESSIVE MEDIUM, video games have a strange way of reducing central concepts of modernist art and theory to basic operational elements. The technical specifications of “point of view” that have preoccupied novelists since the turn of the 20th century are crudely literalized within game... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-31 17:00:02 UTC ]
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Journalist Maria Hinojosa talks about her memoir "Once I Was You," and how a childhood trauma triggered her interest in immigration reporting. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-31 16:00:33 UTC ]
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Harper buys a memoir from Alexander Vindman, a WaPo columnist sells his memoir to S&S, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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CHRISTA PARRAVANI’S SEMINAL Guernica essay published last year, “Life and Death in West Virginia,” was my introduction to this author and inspired me to seek out more of her work. I was thrilled when she agreed to an interview. The personal is political, and in Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-29 19:00:52 UTC ]
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Barack Obama’s memoir is landing. So is a biography of Adrienne Rich and buzzy fiction from Jo Nesbo, Nicole Krauss and Susie Yang. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-10-29 09:00:34 UTC ]
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Headline has acquired Drama Queen, a "compelling and funny" memoir about autism from comedy writer Sara Gibbs. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-29 03:20:34 UTC ]
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Faber is to publish a memoir from Evan Dando, frontman of alternative rock band the Lemonheads, in 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-27 02:20:55 UTC ]
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Indie September Publishing has revealed two lead titles for spring: Melissa Rice's memoir Sobering: Lessons Learnt the Hard Way on Drinking, Thinking and Quitting, and Ronald J Deibert's non-fiction work, Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-27 01:43:01 UTC ]
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In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir published by the New Yorker, former President Barack Obama recalls the long battle for healthcare reform. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-26 19:52:09 UTC ]
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From André Breton to Alison Bechdel, memoir writers have turned the genre upside down. Now a photographer recreates her troubled suburban childhood in a book, casting a movie star — Laura Dern — as her mother. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-10-26 17:41:25 UTC ]
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“My hope was that by embracing openness and vulnerability, my readers would understand and empathize with the situation I had found myself in.” Allison Wood talks to Luna Adler about what a memoir can do. | Lit Hub Memoir “There is enough evidence in the public record to support a complaint that... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-26 10:30:04 UTC ]
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Writers Rachel Howzell Hall, Attica Locke and Ivy Pochoda talked with Times reporter James Queally for a 2020 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books event. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-24 16:06:42 UTC ]
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Bookable features established authors and emerging talent in conversation with host and author Amanda Stern, perhaps best known for creating the Happy Ending Music & Reading Series at New York’s famous Joe’s Pub and Symphony Space. With an immersive sound experience designed around each... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-23 08:48:34 UTC ]
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Guardian Weekend magazine and gal-dem are launching a memoir writing competition for UK-resident black women and black non-binary people aged 16-21 on the theme of ‘conversations’Calling all young black women and black non-binary writers aged 16-21. The Guardian is once again collaborating on a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-10-22 11:23:42 UTC ]
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Lee Brackstone, publisher at White Rabbit, has acquired world all-language rights for Medical Grade Music directly from authors Steve Davis and Kavus Torabi. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-22 10:33:59 UTC ]
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Thank you, universe: We’re getting a queer Canadian grunge-era comedy series about Tegan and Sara Quin directed by Clea DuVall, and there’s literally nothing I can do to make that sentence better. The show will be based on High School, the sisters’ memoir of their adolescence in Calgary,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-21 18:12:12 UTC ]
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