Monday 3 January 2011

LATEST ADDITION TO MY AUSTEN SHELF - THE LITTLE BOOK OF JANE AUSTEN


A dear friend has just sent me this little precious gift book. Isn't it cute? The Little Book of Jane Austen written by Emily Wollastone, directly from Bath. It is,  first of all , a beautiful book, lwith a lovely hard cover, full of gorgeous pictures. Then it is a very useful handbook with everything important about and around Jane Austen. It is divided into 6 sections : introduction, Austen country, the novels, films and television, Celebrating Jane Austen, The Jane Austen Society.

Introduction
Plenty of biographical notes and interesting  information about which writers influenced her work, the history of the writing/publication of her works as well as what kind of reverence or criticism she obtained by other writers of the time can be find in this previous chapter.

 Austen Country

Jane Austen's houses in Steventon, Chawton, Bath, and even the house which hosted Jane in Winchester in her final days, are all described here with anecdotes of her life and beautiful pictures.


The Novels
Detailed plots and little criticism of all the major six and a section dedicated to Austen's Juvenilia, short stories and unfinished novels consitute the bulk of this long chapter with the contribution of lots of colourful stills from the latest adaptations.
 

Film & Television
All six of Austen's major novels have been adapted for the cinemaand small screen to varying degrees of success. This brief section is a rapid outlook on all of them.

 Celebrating Jane Austen
This section deals with The Jane Austen's House Museum and the  The Jane Austen Centre in Bath, with information about their history and current activities.   


The Jane Austen Society
There are many  Jane Austen Societies throughout the world: the JASA (Jane Austen Society of Australia), the Jane Austen Society in the UK,  the JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America),  the JAS of Buenos Ayres and several others. Their intent is to celebrate her life and work. They are all mentioned in this closing section.

This little gift book could be a precious addition to the shelves of a Janeite or the right way to make someone not yet  acquainted with Austen to discover much about her and maybe start to read her work.

To me,  it has been an unexpected, highly appreciated gift.
I'll treasure it. Many thanks, A.

2 comments:

Claudia said...

What a lovely book, and so useful, too! Lucky you... I bet this jewel is unavaiable in Italy!

Claudia

P.S. Happy new year MG!!!

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