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mindsplinters 's review for:
Jane Austen's Bookshelf
by Rebecca Romney
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element for an Advanced Reader Copy - pub date 2/18/2025. For me, one of the best indications of a great non-fiction book is that you close it to find you have an entire list of Further Reading that has miraculously appeared on your scratch pad... and then you actually GO AND FIND THE FURTHER READING. Romney's Jane Austen's Bookshelf nails this in spades. Some of the female authors mentioned were ones I knew. What self-respecting literary dork was unaware of the name Ann Radcliffe, after all? But the fascinating lives and works belonging to the likes of Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth Inchbald, etc? Those were a complete mystery to me.
Starting from the premise of "I love Jane Austen and surely she cannot have developed her writing in a vacuum and why are there these strange gaps in the canon for those years," Rebecca Romney uses all of her knowledge about books and publishing and literature to search out the mysterious writers who inspired and encouraged and, in some cases, surpassed Jane Austen as a Great Female Novelist. The book is part mystery, part literary critique, part biographies, and all well researched and so much fun to read. It's also aggravating to read because, just like Romney, I found myself hissing at random (mostly male) critics who decided that, while there could be multiple exceptional male authors, there could only be ONE exceptional female at any time and Austen was IT. I imagine Austen herself would have had something brilliant and cutting to say on the topic. So would her favorite authors who I came to meet and admire in this book.
Like I said, the ultimate praise I can give a non-fiction book is that I have a list to go Read More and this one nailed that. In fact, while my head and heart are excited for the trip, my wallet is already starting to groan because, not only did Romney get me excited about new authors but her professional eye and descriptions made me want particular editions. Whoops! Thank you so much. I really mean that.
Starting from the premise of "I love Jane Austen and surely she cannot have developed her writing in a vacuum and why are there these strange gaps in the canon for those years," Rebecca Romney uses all of her knowledge about books and publishing and literature to search out the mysterious writers who inspired and encouraged and, in some cases, surpassed Jane Austen as a Great Female Novelist. The book is part mystery, part literary critique, part biographies, and all well researched and so much fun to read. It's also aggravating to read because, just like Romney, I found myself hissing at random (mostly male) critics who decided that, while there could be multiple exceptional male authors, there could only be ONE exceptional female at any time and Austen was IT. I imagine Austen herself would have had something brilliant and cutting to say on the topic. So would her favorite authors who I came to meet and admire in this book.
Like I said, the ultimate praise I can give a non-fiction book is that I have a list to go Read More and this one nailed that. In fact, while my head and heart are excited for the trip, my wallet is already starting to groan because, not only did Romney get me excited about new authors but her professional eye and descriptions made me want particular editions. Whoops! Thank you so much. I really mean that.