Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Jane Austen (Penguin Lives) by Carol Shields ISBN: 0670894885 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 15 February, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6
Rating: 5
Summary: A New Portrait of Jane Austen.
Comment: Carol Shields has written a wonderful biographical essay in the old style. It is careful, imaginative, honest and brave. Apparently, an impartial, ungrudging affection and respect for its subject prompted the urge to learn more and, fortunately for us, she tells us what she has learned. Like the best of anything human, its little flaws serve to authenticate and are to be cherished, rather than challenged, because the book as a whole is so well written that at times it is evocative of the work of Jane Austen herself. Its presentation is modest but its effect is powerful.
This biography is free of the modern practice of earnestly re-presenting every (usually already well known) fact of a subject's life as if new, supposedly in the name of scholarship. This technique usually results in almost nothing being learned about the subject as an individual, as any personal statement might be interpreted as "impressionistic". Impressions as carefully considered as Carol Shields' are here are something to be proud of. She has used facts to support her ideas rather than the other way around, so we end up with something like a new portrait of her subject, sketched carefully from both the facts and the cogent insights of the author.
In the first chapter, the author quotes George Gissing, who suggested that, "the only good biographies are to be found in novels", and suggests this is because, "fiction respects the human trajectory". Jane Austen, raised on the wryly honest literature of the 18th century, certainly might have agreed, and while Carol Shields has not written a work of fiction, she has written a book that anybody who cares about Jane Austen must read if they want to know her better.
Rating: 5
Summary: Nice to meet you Ms. Austen
Comment: At the begining of this biography, Carol Shields warns us that not enought documents and recollections remain to paint a realistic picture of Jane Austen.
Ms. Shields employs her acute sense of empaphy-- gloriously exhibited in "The Stone Diaries"-- to imagine the author behind "Emma" and "Sense and Sensibility". There is no way to confirm the veracity of Ms. Shields meditation, but it doesn't matter.
If the "Jane Austen" exhibited, in this enthralling member of the Penguin-Lipper "Lives" series, is a character who is purely Carol Shields' creation, she is fascinating: ironic, observant, and razor sharp.
In most books from the "Lives" series, the reader acquires not only an appretiation of the subject matter, but becomes familiar with the personality, open-minded analysis, and ethusiasm of the author.
Carol Shields is a terrific guide through Jane Austen's sensibilities and accomplishments.
Rating: 4
Summary: a biography for the novel-reader
Comment: This biography is an enjoyable read for the lover of Jane Austen novels. Written by an accomplished novelist, it sidesteps the droning tone and monotonous succession of facts that characterize most biographies. Instead, its short chapters tell a story that is both interesting in its own right and a worthwhile companion to a study of Jane Austen's literature.
As a serious biography, however, this account seems to fall short. It's light on facts (partly due to the unrecorded nature of much of Jane Austen's life - still, there's little in the way of factual information that couldn't be summarized in a magazine article) and its information is not well-documented. There are certainly more thorough, factual accounts. Moreover, what Shields' book lacks in hard facts it makes up for in conjecture, the kind of soft-sided narrative that makes for interesting reading but spongy research material.
Still, to Jane Austen fans looking for context, this is a suitable resource. It's written with an eye to her novels and their interaction with her life as well as the emotional and practical trappings of authorship. It gives readers insight into the atmosphere of her life, the people she knew and the places she lived, what her days were like. It's interesting and well-written, and short, and sweet.
 |
Title: Charles Dickens: A Penguin Life (Penguin Lives Series) by Jane Smiley ISBN: 0670030775 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 09 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Virginia Woolf (Penguin Lives) by Nigel Nicolson ISBN: 0670894435 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Napoleon: A Penguin Life (Penguin Lives Series.) by Paul Johnson ISBN: 0670030783 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 09 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Winston Churchill: A Penguin Life (Penguin Lives) by John Keegan ISBN: 0670030791 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 10 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Leonardo Da Vinci (Penguin Lives) by Sherwin B. Nuland ISBN: 0670893919 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
