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 ]
Yesterday, a pair of TV interviews crystallized just how the Trump administration is threatening the integrity of the election. On CNBC, Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, cast “voting rights” as part of a “liberal-left wish list,” adding, “That’s not our game.” On Fox Business, Trump... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-08-14 12:26:12 UTC ]
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“I don’t know what it means!” Andy Warhol bleats, in John Giorno’s Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment (out now from Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Warhol’s ditzy refrain is a mantra for the perpetually bemused, at once tragicomic and tongue-in-cheek. He says... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-14 08:48:26 UTC ]
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Among the week’s big deals are the acquisition of a #MeToo memoir by a French publishing exec, Sharon Stone’s memoir, and Andy Weir’s new novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Women's Prize for Fiction has just published 25 literary works by female authors with their real names for the first time. Could we do the same for Miles Franklin and Henry Handel Richardson here? Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2020-08-13 06:43:53 UTC ]
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As Crown Publishing predicted, readers eagerly anticipated Michelle Obama’s Becoming. Autobiography and memoir are best selling categories because virtually everyone enjoys learning about the private life of public figures. In this case, many were curious about the woman who seemed to rise above... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-12 11:00:00 UTC ]
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OWN IT! is to partner with Grime music label Boy Better Know to co-publish the memoir of Ifeomagwu “Ify” Adenuga, the mother of the label's founders. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-11 10:24:04 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton has acquired Liv's Alone by Liv Thorne, an "honest and hopeful memoir that captures the joy and the challenge that is parenting alone by choice". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-09 12:38:16 UTC ]
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Another day, another announcement of a memoir from a former Trump collaborator. This time, it’s Fiona Hill, an ex-advisor who testified in Trump’s impeachment inquiry, whose “views about the future of a polarized America” will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2021. I have nothing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-06 19:59:16 UTC ]
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“Make Russia Great Again” and “Rodham” are two recent novels that benefit from blending fact and fiction. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Sara Faith Alterman's "Let's Never Talk About This Again" is a memoir about strange family dynamics, love, grief and the benefits of finally opening up. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-08-05 18:00:51 UTC ]
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It would be easy to summarize Being Lolita as a memoir about a toxic, exploitative relationship between a high school English teacher and his student, and it is about that—but it’s about that in the way Walden is about a pond. Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2020-08-04 16:08:33 UTC ]
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On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Morgan Jerkins, author of Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots, published by Harper. In this fascinating historical memoir, Jerkins explores her identity and heritage by tracing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-03 19:36:31 UTC ]
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A former U.S. poet laureate’s new memoir reflects on the power of storytelling to reconcile past traumas—and offers lessons for surviving the cataclysms of the present. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2020-08-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Abir Mukherjee, Courttia Newland, Guy Gunaratne, Paul Mendez and Okechukwu Nzelu on why British writers of colour are left out of the conversationAfter this week’s Booker prize longlist was announced, the Times asked “Where are the new male hotshot novelists?” I was... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-31 14:10:18 UTC ]
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Trethewey’s memoir is a tribute to a life snuffed out by a brutal man, a fractured judicial system and a patriarchy as old as Methuselah. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-07-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury's Green Tree is to publish Liz Fraser's memoir Coming Clean: A True Story of Love, Addiction and Recovery next year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-31 11:02:40 UTC ]
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I met David Adjmi at a fancy writing residency. The kind of place where you work all day alone and then eat dinner together, have a drink in the parlor afterwards. I remember a night when someone suggested watching a movie. As people were perusing the house copy of the criterion collection... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribner buy a book about American’s first female astronauts, Matthew McConaughey sells a memoir to Crown, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-07-31 04:00:00 UTC ]
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On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Laura Lippman, author of My Life as a Villainess, published by William Morrow. In this wry essay collection she writes movingly about becoming a mom in her fifties, choices she made in her career as a journalist and a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-30 18:00:43 UTC ]
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The new memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey is an aching investigation of trauma and art. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-07-30 10:06:53 UTC ]
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