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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.7
EAN num: 9780299201845
ISBN number: 0299201848
Label: University of Wisconsin Press
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 358
Printing Date: January 24, 2006
Publishing house: University of Wisconsin Press
Sale Popularity Level: 347900
Studio: University of Wisconsin Press
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Product Description:
Searching for Jane Austen demolishes with wit and vivacity the often-held view of 'Jane,' a decorous maiden aunt writing her small drawing-room stories of teas and balls. Emily Auerbach presents a different Jane Austen—a brilliant writer who, despite the obstacles facing women of her time, worked seriously on improving her craft and became one of the world’s greatest novelists, a master of wit, irony, and character development.
In this beautifully illustrated and lively work, Auerbach surveys two centuries of editing, censoring, and distorting Austen’s life and writings. Auerbach samples Austen’s flamboyant, risqué adolescent works featuring heroines who get drunk, lie, steal, raise armies, and throw rivals out of windows. She demonstrates that Austen constantly tested and improved her skills by setting herself a new challenge in each of her six novels.
In addition, Auerbach considers Austen’s final irreverent writings, discusses her tragic death at the age of forty-one, and ferrets out ridiculous modern adaptations and illustrations, including ads, cartoons, book jackets, newspaper articles, plays, and films from our own time. An appendix reprints a ground-breaking article that introduced Mark Twain’s 'Jane Austen,' an unfinished and unforgettable essay in which Twain and Austen enter into mortal combat.
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Rated by buyers 
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It has a new angle to look at Jane and her works. However, the book itself is not a fun read. The very first chapter is especially so. I quit several times during the 1st chapter. But the following parts are better.
Rated by buyers 
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It is entirely possible to read and enjoy Jane Austen's novels without appreciating her standing as a literary pioneer, but you shouldn't. 2004's "Searching for Jane Austen", by University of Wisconsin Professor of English Emily Auerbach reads a bit like university lecture, but what excellent lectures they must be! Auerbach provides an entirely readable and enjoyable survey of the perceptions of Jane Austen as an author and of her pioneering work as a novelist.
Jane Austen's family, in the years after her early death in 1817, went to some lengths to create an image of her as a demure, sheltered, and almost saintly maiden aunt that conformed with then-current standards of lady-like behavior. Some more recent biography has suggested that she was sexually frustrated and unhappy. In fact, as Auerbach documents, both these images are a put-down that hide a fascinating and surprisingly modern person from our literary acquaintance. Miss Jane Austen, in life, was very likely a confident, capable, and ambitious author with a keen and even subversive sense of wit, who, if she was unfortunate in never marrying, managed to carve out a satisfying life nonetheless.
Auerbach initially describes how Austen's image has been manipulated over the years, then plunges into an extended examination of her works. The Juvenalia and each of the published novels are dealt with in the likely order of composition. This approach allows Auerbach to bring out the unique highlights of each individual novel and to emphasize the growth in Austen's literary technique. Auerbach pays particular attention to the heroine of each novel and how their personal growth drives the various outcomes.
The general reader may tend to avoid literary criticism, but Auerbach's is well worth reading. For example, Mansfield Park's Fanny Price is perhaps the least honored of Austen's heroines, but Auerbach establishes her place in Austen's thinking about morality and manages to make her far more interesting as a character. As another example, Auerbach's discusion of the leading character of "Emma" gets well beyond the obvious romantic comedy aspects of the novel to investigate some subtle role reversal.
"Searching for Jane Austen" is very highly recommended to fans of Jane Austen, who will find a vigorous discusion of her literary abilities and some fresh insights into her novels.
Rated by buyers -
"Searching for Jane Austen" is a wonderful read for any (even casual) Austen enthusiast. My very first contact with this work was at a literary festival where Emily Auerbach spoke about her research--and her lecture was so compelling that I read the book quickly, and it encouraged me to learn more about Jane Austen's works.
The book manages to shed light on both biographical/historical/cultural subjects (how the Austen family tried to mute the image of the writer after her death, and how some (male) scholars have denigrated Austen's work throughout the decades) while also discussing interesting themes and interpretations of Austen's cannon. [Each Austen heroine, hero, and villain gets proper time and scrunity.]
"Searching for Jane Austen" is well-organized, with each of the six novels getting its own chapter, in addition to beginning and concluding sections about Austen's life and legacy. The book made me appreciate each of her novels in new ways (even ones that are often underappreciated or not discussed, such as Northanger Abbey), and even though this work is scholarly, it was fun reading. Auerbach dissects her subject fairly, but she treats Jane Austen's works with such admiration and care that you want to read Pride and Prejudice (or Emma, or Persuasion) all over again.
Rated by buyers 
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I got this book from the public library, read it, and felt I had to have it, though I already have shelves of Jane Austen materials. The censoring and shaping of Jane Austen and her writings started after her death, and continues today. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Northanger Abbey.
Rated by buyers -
Emily Auerbach may be in danger of being drummed out of academia for writing a book that is so well-researched and so detailed, and yet so readable. Auerbach's concern is the attempts by Austen's relatives and earlier literary critics to present Austen as a meek and mild cardboard saint. There is nothing particularly new in this idea, but it is very well and thoroughly done. While several biographers have made similar arguments, none is a thorough and convincing as this specialized monograph.
Auerbach pays particular attention to the representations of Austen. She seems to feel that the portrait by Austen's sister Cassandra is the only valid image. Well, arguably it is the only portrait that shows her face. Auerbach does not examine other representations of doubtful authenticity. While I see what she is driving at, I think this is perhaps a trifle overdone. Cassandra's portrait is rough and unfinished, and I wonder whether it would have been used prior to some of the aesthetic changes of "modern art", even if JA looked timid and pious. The two most commonly reproduced engravings really don't strike me as such terrible revisions of Cassandra's portrait, with the significant exception of removing the lines around the mouth, and in one case, adding a wedding ring. I don't think the ruffles are a serious distortion: it's not like JA was in the habit of dressing like a man or a particularly no-nonsense Puritan. She may have had ruffles: CA's portrait is too unfinished to assert that she didn't. At least she is still wearing her habitual cap, unlike the portrait that shows her with her hair fashionably dressed. The issues of the lines around the mouth does reveal one tension in the book (and in several recent works about JA): Auerbach is rather annoyed that Valerie Myers describes JA as looking like a peevish hamster in CA's portrait. I would have said guinea pig was more like it, but what if she does? One the one hand, Auerbach seems to want warts and all, and on the other she seems to want to insist that there were no warts. I am not certain what Auerbach is saying about the picture that represents JA sitting by a Hollywood swimming pool talking on her cell phone, but I love that particular picture -- I think it's a hoot.
But, forget trivial cavils. The most important distortions are in the written record; Auerbach has obviously done heroic research and thoroughly supports her opinions about written materials. The critiques that she has made of certain books that I liked make me want to rush back and reread them in the light of her remarks. At one point, Auerbach begins an indepth analysis of the poem from which a quote is taken. I was originally somewhat dubious about this: sometimes when I quote a line out of context, I mean it to be understood out of context, but she carefully show how the quotes throughout the book complement and support one another. I was converted to her point of view.
Auerbach believes in my favorite Jane Austen; almost terrifyingly perceptive and well aware that life is complex and there are few simple answers. Auerbach seems to have a thorough understanding of the literature and was very taken with most of her arguments.
The book has numerous blank-and-white illustrations.
I would recommend this to any Jane Austen collection.
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