A must for Austen bibliophiles.
An elegant exploration into the curious journey of literary celebrity, as exhibited by Jane Austen.
Austen’s rise within the literary canon is reflected in modern culture by the many film versions and derivations of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and others, and in the ubiquitous inclusion of her works in academic curricula. Royal Society of Literature fellow Harman (Myself and the Other Fellow: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, 2006, etc.) delineates the growth of Austen’s fame as both a study of the process of getting published and acclaim as a writer, as well as the actual features of Austen’s work that make it both popular and divisive. The author declares Austen to be as difficult a biographical subject as Shakespeare, in that both left behind few details of their personal lives, making their mythologies all the more of a touchstone for adulation. Harman efficiently sketches the confined circumstances within which Austen, a financially dependent spinster, wrote and revised her novels over many years before they were published. The author ably captures the imperturbable belief that Austen must have had in her talent—she continued to write new novels, even though the first one, Sense and Sensibility, was not published until a few years before her death. Although Austen had a few admirers, the initial circulation of her work was limited. It was not until a biography written by her nephew, James Austen-Leigh, was published in 1870 that interest was revived in her work on a larger scale. Harman points out the key feature of Austen’s writing that finally resulted in her canonization within English literature—her ironic artistry as a keen observation tool of the truth of human nature. Detractors, ranging from Charlotte Brontë to Mark Twain, have decried the small-scale nature of her work, the focus on ordinary life and the lack of poetry. For Harman, it is this very accessibility that has resulted in her rise to global fame.
A must for Austen bibliophiles.Pub Date: March 2, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8258-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
Graceful and deeply felt.
A collection of personal pieces, combined into an affecting memoir by longtime New Yorker editor Angell.
The author, a noted baseball writer (A Pitcher’s Story, 2001, etc.), has many intimate connections to the magazine Gardner Botsford once dubbed “The Comic Weekly,” in which most of these reminiscences originally appeared. His mother, Katherine, was the New Yorker’s fiction editor; years later, Angell held her former job—and occupied her office. His stepfather, E.B. White, was the magazine’s most important contributor during its most influential years. The memoir mostly concerns New Yorker colleagues and other remarkable people who have been a part of the author’s life. His father, lawyer Ernest Angell, lost Katherine to the younger White but over the years became a figure of immense importance to Roger. Angell loved his mother, loved White, loved his first wife (not much here about the cause of their 1960s divorce), loved his coworkers, loved his job. His portraits are really tributes, whether of the well-known William Maxwell, V.S. Pritchett, Harold Ross or William Shawn, or the lesser-known Botsford and Emily Hahn. Angell offers some New Yorker–insider tidbits (Ian Frazier mimicked Shawn’s voice so well that he could fool colleagues over the phone) and a bit more than you want to know about some of his aunts, one of whom wrote a book about Willa Cather. A dazzling story-within-a-story describes a 1940 round of golf with a mysterious woman who lost a valuable ring. The author seems uncertain how an iPod works but reveals an expertise with machine guns. His fickle memory frustrates and bemuses him. Sometimes he can recall only sensory images; sometimes the story unreeling in his mind skips, stops, fades, dissolves into something else. In several of his most appealing passages, he writes about the fictions that memory fashions.
Graceful and deeply felt.Pub Date: May 8, 2006
ISBN: 0-15-101350-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
IN THE NEWS
A slim volume packed with nourishing nuggets of wisdom.
Life lessons from the celebrated poet.
Angelou (A Song Flung Up to Heaven, 2002, etc.) doesn’t have a daughter, per se, but “thousands of daughters,” multitudes that she gathers here in a Whitmanesque embrace to deliver her experiences. They come in the shape of memories and poems, tools that readers can fashion to their needs. “Believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things,” she writes, proceeding to recount pungent moments, stories in which her behavior sometimes backfired, and sometimes surprised even herself. Much of it is framed by the “struggle against a condition of surrender” or submission. She refuses to preach or consider her personal insights as generalized edicts. She is reminded of the charity that words and gestures bring and the liberation that comes with honesty. Lies, she notes, often spring out of fear. She cheated madness by counting her blessings. She is enlivened by those in love. She understands the uses and abuses of violence. Occasionally a bit of old-fashioned advice filters in, as during a commencement address/poem in which she urges the graduates to make a difference, to be present and accountable. The topics are mostly big, raw and exposed. Where is death’s sting? “It is here in my heart.” Overarching each brief chapter is the vital energy of a woman taking life’s measure with every step.
A slim volume packed with nourishing nuggets of wisdom.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6612-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
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