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Josephine Ross, "Jane Austen: A Companion"

The only best-selling authors in Jane Austen’s league in the English language today are Shakespeare and Dickens. In the twenty-first century her boundless appeal continues to grow following the enormously successful TV and film adaptations of Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, and of course, Sense and Sensibility.

This illuminating, entertaining, up-to-date companion is the only general guide to Jane Austen, her work, and her world. Josephine Ross explores the literary scene during the time Austen’s works first appeared: the books considered classics then, the "horrid novels" and romances, and the grasping publishers. She looks at the architecture and décor of Austen’s era that made up "the profusion and elegance of modern taste": Regency houses for instance, Chippendale furniture, "picturesque scenery." On the smaller scale she answers questions that may baffle modern readers of Austen’s work. What, for example, was "hartshorn"? How did Lizzy Bennet "let down" her gown to hide her muddy petticoat? Ross shows us the fashions, and the subtle ways Jane Austen used clothes to express character. Courtship, marriage, adultery, class and "rank," mundane tasks of ordinary life, all appear, as does the wider political and military world—especially the navy, in which her brothers served.

This book will add depth to all readers’ enjoyment of Jane Austen, whether confirmed addicts or newcomers wanting to know what all the fuss is about.

Review

Have you ever wondered, when reading Jane Austen's novels, what negus is? Worried about white soup and black butter? Puzzle no more: in this fascinating book, Josephine Ross provides, not another biography of the immortal Jane, but a penetrating study of her setting and times. No detail is overlooked in this thorough effort to enlighten the modern reader as to obscure words (such as the contemporary meaning of the word 'picturesque'), customs and etiquette. When we realize, for example, that yellow was a daring colour for household furnishings in 1814, Mr Elton's yellow curtains (in Emma) take on a new significance, and add to the portrayal of his character. Ross points out that Austen never underestimates the power of sexual desire, but is concerned to show the necessity of restraint and the social and emotional consequences of lack of control, as in the instance of Lydia and Wickham's elopement in Pride and Prejudice. Duty was paramount and marriage meant an immediate rise in social status for a woman: wives always took precedence over spinsters. But at the same time she demonstrates that women of this complex age of highly codified manners and conduct had a freedom in dress that they were not to regain until the 20th century. Yet a woman could only write a letter to a man if she were engaged to him: in Sense and Sensibility Elinor Dashwood automatically assumes that an engagement has taken place when she sees Marianne posting a letter to Willoughby. Although the Companion is not a life of Austen, her charming presence is never far away, and we learn about her attachments and activities. (She was devoted to her large family, liked apple pies and wine and sewed beautifully.) The book returns enthusiasts to the novels with deeper understanding and renewed appreciation.

Contents

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Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements 1 A Brief Life 2 'The Common Daily Routine' 3 'The Present Fashions' 4 'The Subject of Books' 5 'Of Lovers and Husbands' 6 'The Beauty of the Place' 7 'The Distinction of Rank' 8 'Politics and Public Events' Further Reading Index

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Tags: Literature, LiteraryCriticism, History, 19CEngland

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