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University of Wisconsin Press
February 2006
On Sale: January 24, 2006
358 pages ISBN: 0299201848 EAN: 9780299201845 Paperback
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Fiction | Historical
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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