A review by bob_muller
Jane Austen's Cults and Cultures by Claudia L. Johnson

3.0

Like any collection of essays written over a long period, the essays here are very uneven in quality and interest for the general reader, even a Janeite reader. I found the essays on magic and fairies (and fairy tales) unreadable and the essays on Austen's body and Austen's house to be fascinating. The WWI and WWII essays were interesting reviews of Kipling's story and other Jane-centered writing as they contributed to the culture of Britain at the time, but I wasn't enthralled. Johnson's writing shows here background as an American academic steeped in the language and thinking of the late 20th century humanities; I could wish for clearer organization and insights, fewer syllables, and shorter sentences. Since Jane Austen is perfectly readable with much the same afflictions (due to the language of the early 19th century), I can't criticize too much. I find very different things in Jane Austen than does Johnson, but that's the beauty and wonder of her writing, as Johnson points out, and why she has become a saint (with relics) in the religion of everyday life.