"A witty, convincing and spirited defense of the practice of reading and writing fiction...both a fascinating study of Jane Austen and a novelist's inquiry into her own art." The Saturday Review.

The second copy of this book I have registered. The first one is stuck someplace on it's second journey around the world: http://bookcrossing.com/journal/210778

Highly recommended to any fan of Jane Austen.

I've been planning to drop this book off to a woman in my neighborhood who I've told about BookCrossing. She said Jane Austen is one of her favorite writers. Hope she's surprised . . . and pleased.

Oct. 4, 2009. Friend, dear reader, was not impressed and returned the book to me, several months ago, without making a journal entry.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

A spare copy of a book I enjoyed immensely. One copy is currently on its second trip around the world in a long-neglected book ring (I must see where that book is now).

A fellow BookCrosser has graciously overtaken this book to get it travelling.

available

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I will take this book with me to the meetup next Saturday.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I will take this book with me to the meetup next Saturday.

I'm a Jane Austen fan and I've enjoyed several of Fay Weldon's books, so I couldn't resist taking this book from the opening meeting of OBCZ-BarLeDuc.

This is the third time I attempted to read this book. I was sure it would be good, but the first couple of times, I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for something which made me think, as this did. Books written as fictional letters or diaries are very often humorous, in my experience: '84, Charing Cross Road', 'Bridget Jones's Diary', 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4', 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society', to name but a few. Fay Weldon's letters are to a fictional niece who is reluctantly having to read Jane Austen's books for a literature course and is also contemplating writing her own novel. Successful author, Aunt Fay for the purposes of this book, takes the opportunity to pass on her own wisdom and philosophy about writing, and in attempting to encourage an interest in Jane Austen, discusses the novels and gives some fascinating background into the time in which Jane was writing and her own life-story. I wasn't sure I was going to find any humour here, but I was wrong.

The first letter which had previously failed to grab my attention, turned out to be a rather interesting metaphor, describing literature as the City of Imagination, with each book a building, each oevre a street, each genre an area appropriate to the subject matter. When the book really took off, however, was with letter two, 'A terrible time to be alive', which describes society at the time of Jane Austen, and points out that the novels ignore the awful realities of poverty and sickness. I once had a lecturer of medieval history who said he would have loved to live in medieval times, but he couldn't have stood the lack of drains; this chapter just goes to show how historical knowledge of an author can explain many of the attitudes or actions which appear strange to modern eyes. I recently read 'Moll Flanders', and many of the reviewers on Goodreads couldn't understand Moll's apparent casual attitude towards her children; this chapter explains it most effectively.
Because people were so poor - most people - they would run, and toil, and sweat all day and all night to save themselves and their children from starvation. Rather like India is today. If you were a child and your parents died, you lived on the streets: if you were a young woman and gave birth out of wedlock you would, like as not, spend the rest of your life in a lunatic asylum, classified as a moral imbecile. If you tried to commit suicide to save yourself from such a life, you would be saved, and then hanged. [...] If you stole anything worth more than £5 you could be hanged, or transported to a penal colony for life. If it was under £5 there were long, harsh prison sentences in unspeakable prisons, and the age of criminal liability was seven.
Of course, poor women had other options; there were 70,000 prostitutes in London in 1800, out of a total UK population of 900,000, at a time when childbirth was extremely risky and abortion often fatal. Jane Austen's heroines' preoccupation with marriage was hardly surprising, but the risks of multiple births made even that a dubious prize; apparently almost half of women at the time remained virgins, although the men certainly didn't! Fascinating stuff, and told with Fay Weldon's characteristic wit.

If only this sort of background history were taught at school as part of the English Literature class, it would make things more interesting, at least it would have done to me. Of course, in this day and age, this sort of background information is easy to look up online, but I wonder how many schoolchildren bother. Fay Weldon also has something to say about compulsory reading, and this made me laugh out loud:
I think you should probably read Richardson's 'Sir Charles Grandison', which I believe was one of Jane Austen's favourites. I have not read it. If you will read it, Alice, and let me know what is is like, I will pay you £50. I believe that reading books you do not really want to read, like looking after children you do not really want to look after, should be a very highly-paid occupation indeed. It is an assault to the human spirit.

She has much more to say about being a reader, being a writer, why fiction is necessary, and why fiction does not need to necessarily be written to change the world, though it can, but it is her thoughts about Jane Austen herself which I enjoyed the most. I wish I had an aunt who could write such wonderful and witty letters to me (not even taking into consideration the bribery!).

For the book buffet at the biggest Dutch BookCrossing meeting of the year.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2012. My reading goal is 65 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2013. My goal is 26,000.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2012. My reading goal is 65 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2013. My goal is 26,000.

This book was still there at the end of the uncon in Castricum by the sea in the Netherlands. A lovely meeting it was, by the way.
I could not leave it behind as it's on my wishlist ... :)

Surprise ! This is a great book !

Oh wow! What a lovely surprise to find a wishlist book in the mail. Thanks so much for the rabck Bloedengel! I'm sure I'll enjoy it. :)

Interesting read about writing and being a writer, and some historical background on England and the time that Jane Austen lived. It did make me look differently at mrs. Bennet😆


Released in the little bookswap house next to the elevators. :)