tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934096967055481899.post8291978220080678999..comments2024-03-04T11:22:53.502-05:00Comments on Fifty Books Project 2023: Is Jane Austen overrated?Fifty Books Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08640286429668778869noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934096967055481899.post-71470433201975242012013-02-21T17:52:35.162-05:002013-02-21T17:52:35.162-05:00Oh man, I tried to read The Ambassadors a couple y...Oh man, I tried to read The Ambassadors a couple years ago and found it nearly impenetrable. I did enjoy Turn of the Screw, but I haven't had the courage to pick up another James book in a long time. Let me know what you think.Christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12500451355263180972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934096967055481899.post-21827801370513069042013-02-20T20:56:06.031-05:002013-02-20T20:56:06.031-05:00That makes me very much look forward to the next n...That makes me very much look forward to the next novel on my list: The Portrait of a Lady.<br /><br />I have these weird gaps in education (which I am now having to fill for my grad school comps) that includes never having read Edith Wharton or Henry James. Coupled with my gender studies class, I am actually starting to feel a little burned out on all the lady issues!Brittanyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11505849394031450120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934096967055481899.post-68940952079745947772013-02-19T12:58:35.706-05:002013-02-19T12:58:35.706-05:00I really, really love Edith Wharton, but I think t...I really, really love Edith Wharton, but I think that her talents are very similar to some of her contemporaries (like, say, Henry James). I think Austen's power of irony and narrative control is something that nobody else does, even though people have been trying to do it for two centuries now. For that reason I think she's still in a class of her own.<br /><br />Never read Burney, though.Christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12500451355263180972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934096967055481899.post-36145480679659988422013-02-17T22:19:02.611-05:002013-02-17T22:19:02.611-05:00I, like most English teachers (particularly of the...I, like most English teachers (particularly of the lady variety), love Austen, but one of the things I dislike about her popularity is how she overshadows other authors who would be more well known if Austen didn't take up such a large chunk of the talking space around female novelists (along with the Brontes). <br /><br />It wasn't until I started grad school that I discovered Burney and Wharton, and I think that both of them are comparable in talent and subject to Miss Austen. <br /><br />Also, I know I'm thinking about this more because I'm currently taking a Gender and Lit class, but there is a huge tendency of (male) critics to dismiss work by women as 'lighter' and 'less important' because it centers more on social life, family life, and character development, which makes me suspicious and annoyed when I read a male who says an author doesn't probe "the meaning of the human presence within it"Brittanyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11505849394031450120noreply@blogger.com