Jane Austen For Dummies (For Dummies)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 384 pages
• Published by: For Dummies July 31, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0470008296
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0470008294
• Book Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.3 pounds

Product Review
"If you begin this book as dummy, you won’t be one when you finish." (Financial Times, Sat 7th July)

Product Description
Explains Austen's methods, motivations, and morals

The fun and easy way(r) to understand and enjoy Jane Austen

Want to know more about Jane Austen? This friendly guide gives the scoop on her life, works, and lasting impact on our culture. It chronicles the events of her brief life, looks at each of her novels, and looks at why her stories - of women and marriage, class and money, scandal and hypocrisy, emotion and satire - still have meaning for us today.

Discover
* Why Austen is so popular
* The impact on manners, courtships, and dating
* Love and life in Austen's world
* Her life and key influences
* Her most memorable characters

Reader Reviews
I hate the name of this series, but this volume by Joan Klingel Ray, president of the Jane Austen Society of North America is a terrific, clear, concise, and inviting set of explanations for all of those questions that newer readers of Austen have about her world: Why doesn't Elizabeth Bennet just get a job? Why will Mrs. Bennet have to leave Longbourn if Mr. Bennet dies? How rich IS Darcy? Plus, because Ray's learning is so deep, the chapter on manners, for instance, is framed not by vague ideas of "well, we all want to behave nicely, don't we?" but by Castiglione and the translations of it into Latin and English. This kind of learning is in evidence in every chapter. I've been reading Austen since I was 13--more than 35 years--and I find new information in this volume. Plus, it's fun to read sections and see just how much I already knew. For instance, do you know how to navigate via the Tube and trains to the Austen sites in the countryside? I didn't. Dr. Ray tells all. I do love a clear explanation! Pamela Regis, Professor of English McDaniel College Westminster, MD Comment | | (Report this)