...if you not only have favorite authors, you have favorite critics. As I've studied Jane Austen, I've come to appreciate specific critics: R. W. Chapman who produced the first ever academic edition of Austen's novels (circa 1900); Lionel Trilling, whose writing on Austen in the '50's is as compelling and insightful as it is beautiful; Marilyn Butler, whose monumental work--Jane Austen and the War of Ideas, 1982--elevated Austen's work by offering both a feminist and political critique; and Claudia Johnson who argues for a view of Austen's politics that is far more radical--and much more to my taste--than Butler's.
Well, Johnson is the only one still writing. She's a professor at Princeton and is one of--if not the--leading Austen critic. And she's coming out with a new book next year, and I couldn't be more delighted:
Jane Austen's Cults and Cultures
Claudia L. Johnson
Description:
Jane Austen completed only six novels, but enduring passion for the author and her works has driven fans to read these books repeatedly, in book clubs or solo, while also inspiring countless film adaptations, sequels, and even spoofs involving zombies and sea monsters. Austen’s lasting appeal to both popular and elite audiences has lifted her to legendary status. In Jane Austen’s Cults and Cultures, Claudia L. Johnson shows how Jane Austen became “Jane Austen,” a figure intensely—sometimes even wildly—venerated, and often for markedly different reasons.
Johnson begins by exploring the most important monuments and portraits of Austen, considering how these artifacts point to an author who is invisible and yet whose image is inseparable from the characters and fictional worlds she created. She then passes through the four critical phases of Austen’s reception—the Victorian era, the First and Second World Wars, and the establishment of the Austen House and Museum in 1949—and ponders what the adoration of Austen has meant to readers over the past two centuries. For her fans, the very concept of “Jane Austen” encapsulates powerful ideas and feelings about history, class, manners, intimacy, language, and the everyday. By respecting the intelligence of past commentary about Austen, Johnson shows, we are able to revisit her work and unearth fresh insights and new critical possibilities.
An insightful look at how and why readers have cherished one of our most beloved authors, Jane Austen’s Cults and Cultures will be a valuable addition to the library of any fan of the divine Jane.
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