From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show <\/strong>Pawn Stars<\/em><\/strong>, an enthralling literary adventure that introduces listeners to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen\u2014and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.<\/strong><\/p>
Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen\u2019s 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.<\/p>
But Austen wasn\u2019t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers\u2014and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen\u2019s work. Every character in Northanger Abbey<\/em> who isn\u2019t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park<\/em> is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase \u201cpride and prejudice\u201d came from Frances Burney\u2019s second novel Cecilia<\/em>. The women that populated Jane Austen\u2019s 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\u2019t Romney\u2014despite her training\u2014ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?<\/p>
Jane Austen\u2019s Bookshelf<\/em> investigates the disappearance of Austen\u2019s heroes\u2014women writers who were erased from the Western canon\u2014to 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\u2014and recounts Romney\u2019s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen\u2019s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen\u2019s 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\u2019s Bookshelf<\/em> will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.<\/p>
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