Editorial Content for Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Rebecca Romney, a rare book collector and Jane Austen enthusiast, has given the world an answer to the question “If all our bookshelves are full of Jane Austen books, what filled her own shelves so long ago?” Romney discovered a variety of female writers who themselves were responsible for inspiring Austen to pick up her pen again and again. JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF is a real eye opener, a valiant and entertaining effort to ensure that these women do not get lost in the literary canon shuffle anymore.
From the BookTok girlies to the PhD candidates, every Austen fan will find here a wondrous and enjoyable historical journey to the heart of literary feminism, as well as some clues about how the rare books world works. Romney has a delightful voice; she is self-effacing, funny and quite knowledgeable. As she moves forward on her quest, readers will do the easy part --- sit back, relax, enjoy the biographies of these fantastic women and their works, and then pick up a copy of every single volume that Romney mentions for further reading heaven.
"I certainly expect that Romney’s excellent cultivation of [these writers'] life stories in JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF will build a new interest and understanding for the readers of today and the books of yesterday."
Romney uncovers eight writers who most likely will not be known beyond academic circles but whose output was on par with Austen’s relatable works: Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi and Maria Edgeworth. Romney starts her hunt by asking herself where the term “pride and prejudice” came from, revealing an answer that surprised her. It originated from Burney’s novel, CECILIA, one of the most famous books of Austen’s lifetime. In this era, more women published novels than men. However, if we were to follow general readership trends, we would see that no real dent was made in the canon by these authors. Romney’s work will change that in a significant way.
Austen was a productive reader and owned as many of the books she read as possible. There is the sense of a deep passion here, not just between Romney and Austen’s love for female-driven plotlines and passions, but for the joy of holding in one’s hand a beautiful book, full of the possibility of a literary journey that takes one away from the real-world issues every era creates. Romney gives ample space to each author here, whether she is a playwright, a poet or a novelist. These works were both commercially viable and artistically explorative, but they have been forgotten in the wealth of attention given to Austen’s enduring classics.
As an English major considering a PhD in literature, I have to say that I was flummoxed by how few of these writers are given attention in academic circles or even in the Bookstagram posts of the most deep-cutting creators. I certainly expect that Romney’s excellent cultivation of their life stories in JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF will build a new interest and understanding for the readers of today and the books of yesterday.
Teaser
Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more. JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes --- women writers who were erased from the Western canon --- to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s.
Promo
Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more. JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes --- women writers who were erased from the Western canon --- to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s.
About the Book
From Rebecca Romney, a rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show "Pawn Stars," a page-turning literary adventure that introduces readers to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen --- and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.
Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.
But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers --- and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen’s work. Every character in NORTHANGER ABBEY who isn’t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in MANSFIELD PARK is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase “pride and prejudice” came from Frances Burney’s second novel, CECILIA.
The women who populated Jane Austen’s bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney --- despite her training --- ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?
JANE AUSTEN'S BOOKSHELF investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes --- women writers who were erased from the Western canon --- to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer, including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi and Maria Edgeworth --- and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen’s bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today.
JANE AUSTEN'S BOOKSHELF will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.
Audiobook available, read by Rebecca Romney
