What Matters in Jane Austen?: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved

by Austen / Mullan

Other authorsJane Austen (Author), John Mullan (Author)

Paperback, 2014

Status

Available

Call number

823.7

Genres

Nonfiction

All Topics

Collection

Your library

Publication

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2014), Edition: Reprint, 342 pages

Description

A literary scholar poses twenty questions that reveal deep truths about the iconic writer and her lasting influence, demonstrating how Austen's genius can be better appreciated with an understanding of her books' character dynamics, unspoken sexuality, and period conventions.

Media reviews

The Independent

The approach, with its attention to detail, determination to solve puzzles, and respect for the text, is reminiscent of John Sutherland's approach in Is Heathcliff a Murderer?

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The Guardian

One effect of reading Mullen's compendium is to make you appreciate the sheer density, the tight-woven intricacy, of every scene and every exchange in Austen. His approach illuminates, because no detail is redundant: Mrs Norris scolding the carpenter's son, or Mr Perry's children eating wedding

cake, or Captain Benwick's taste in literature. Every remark, every accident, every material exchange, is a revelation. Rather, each detail reveals just itself, its own place in the whole unfolding story of how things are, at a specific place and moment in time, in a specific nexus of human relations – in Highbury, or at the Camden Place evening party, or between Mary Musgrove and her in-laws. "How things are" is obvious, once you can see it; it's easy to read, once it's written. What's less easy is to imagine holding all that material at once in imagination, and finding the right run of words to put it on to the page; making sentences unroll convincingly into an illusion of seeing and hearing, movement and intelligence. If it works, then reading is like a sensation of being there. Janeites obsess over belonging inside her worlds, because she makes us all feel present in them; she includes us in the club of those who see.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member daisyq

Really interesting if you love Jane Austen's works. This gives fascinating insights into life at the time Austen was writing, explaining a lot of things that her contemporary readers would take for granted. Mullan also explores Austen's technique and originality as an author.

The book uses examples

from all Austen's works and from her personal letters. It's an easy read, not overly academic.

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LibraryThing member cbl_tn

Readers just getting to know Jane Austen's works or those who have been reading and rereading her for years will discover new depths to her work in the essays in this book. While the book includes background information on manners and customs of Austen's day, its primary aim is to analyze how

Austen made such details serve a purpose in her work. Each chapter poses a question and answers it with numerous examples from Austen's oeuvre. “How much does age matter?” “Why is it risky to go to the seaside?” “Why is the weather important?” “Which important characters never speak in the novels?” “What do characters say when the heroine is not there?” “What do characters read?”

The essays in this book have given me a deeper appreciation for Austen's skill as a novelist. I've learned new ways to approach her books as a reader. The book is suitable for both academic and general readers. Although each chapter can stand on its own, many readers will want to read the book from cover to cover. Readers who take the latter approach should be aware that there is some repetition between chapters, as some of the same passages are used to illustrate different points in different chapters. Highly recommended for all Austen enthusiasts.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

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LibraryThing member isabelx

'What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant?' asks the narrator of Pride and Prejudice, in effect echoing Elizabeth's thought. There is nothing like the verdict of a servant, for the servants see everything, and we as readers should see them watching and listening.

To

start with I wasn't sure about this book, as the first 2 or 3 chapters seemed quite repetitive, as they kept referencing the same scenes from the books, but it soon got more interesting. The chapter that explained why everyone in Jane Austen seems to know exactly how much money everybody else has was especially fascinating, and other favourites were chapters about servants, right and wrong ways to propose marriage, and the significance of blushing in the books.

Having re-read Northanger Abbey and Emma last year, I remember the details John Mullan describes quite well, and I am now planning to revisit some of the other books this year, while "What Matters in Jane Austen?" is fresh in my mind.

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LibraryThing member AmaliaGavea

Have you ever wondered why some characters in Austen's novels never utter a word? What is the importance of weather or blushing or sickness in moving her stories forward? If you have (and , perhaps, you haven't) you are going to find all answers in John Mullan's fascinating book. Enriched with

passages not only from Austen's novels but also excerpts from her letters to her sister, Cassandra, it is a study that shows her writings under a new light.

John Mullan's What Matters in Jane Austen? is an extremely informative, charming book that deserves its own space in the bookcase of every Jane Austen afficionado and every lover of British Literature in general.

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LibraryThing member LisCarey

Mullen gives us a wonderful trip through Jane Austen's novels, including the unfinished Sanditon, looking at obvious, non-obvious, and "I never thought to ask that!" questions about Austen's world, daily life, the behavior and relations of the characters.

What people call each other seems a simple

and obvious detail, but it reveals a wealth of information about status in a class-conscious society, relationships between characters, and the formality that governed relations even between husband and wife. When characters violate the rules, it's not a throwaway detail. It reveals important information about the characters and their relationships. In Persuasion, Anne Eliot's sister Mary and Mary's husband are a rare case of husband and wife addressing each other by their given names. This isn't the norm as it is for us, or the sign of marital intimacy it is later in the 19th century. Instead, it's a symptom of the disrespect and frustration the couple feel towards each other.

Another aspect of daily life in Austen's world that's mostly alien to us now, where we don't have the same assumptions that Austen and her original readers did is in both the formality and the ubiquity of mourning. Strict rules governed what people could do and what they could wear when recently bereaved of their near and not-so-near relations and connections. Death was all too frequent, could come as the result of what started off as apparently a minor cold, and failure to observe mourning for family, connections, friends, etc., could cause offense and long-lasting ruptures between different branches of a family or formerly close friends.

This is a clearly written, engaging exploration of Austen's world, her fiction, and of what a daring and even experimental writer she was, creating major innovations in story-telling that are with us today.

If you enjoy Austen and enjoy going "behind the scenes" to see what makes a novel work, this is a fascinating, rewarding read.

Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

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LibraryThing member sweetiegherkin

In this work of literary criticism, Mullan writes about the works of Jane Austen, using a fine eye for details. What I really enjoyed about this book was how he would choose a topic of study for each chapter and then explore how that topic was touched upon in each of Austen's major works (as

opposed to other literary critics who devote one chapter per Austen novel). He pointed out things and/or made connections that I had not previously noted, or had not noted the significance of when reading each book as a separate entity. Where Mullan did not succeed was in his "puzzles solved." For starters, many of the so-called puzzles are not at all "crucial" -- readers were not really dying to know who blushes when in Austen's novel. Yes, it is interesting that the women 'blush' and the men 'color', but the novels do not hinge on the readers noticing this. Furthermore, many of his chapters seem like he is trying to make a point but just doesn't. As my boyfriend put it, "twenty crucial puzzles solved" sells more books that "twenty nifty observations" even though the latter is more accurate.

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LibraryThing member auntieknickers

On the recommendation of another Goodreads and IRL friend, I got this book. I have been reading Jane Austen since age 10 when I read Pride and Prejudice for a library summer reading program. (And I think I was in my 30s and 3rd or 4th rereading when I realized that "eloping" had a different meaning

than it does now!) Just goes to show that there is always something new to discover, and Mr. Mullan helped me discover quite a lot with these essays on such topics as illness, money, sex, etc. Now I'm afraid I'm going to have to embark on another course of rereading. Highly recommended for Janeites and those just beginning to read the novels.

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LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri

Lightweight, slightly repetitive and thoroughly informative and enjoyable. Nice to get some proof (from an impeccable source) that of course Jane Austen knows exactly what she is doing - and how good and innovative she is.

After all, once you've read everything Jane Austen has written, read your

favourites a few more times, changed your favourites over the years and read the new favourites over and over again, you do need something else to help refresh the next reading - and this does nicely.

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LibraryThing member japaul22

I really enjoyed this. Mullan takes different topics, techniques, etc. and talks about how Austen used them throughout her novels. I gained a lot of insight into her writing and will notice these as I reread her novels.

Here are some of my favorite topics discussed. In "What do the Characters Call

Each Other", there was some great insight into the meaning behind using first names, or last names only, or titles. He also points out what couples call each other. All of these are tied in to how Austen sets up plot points or characterizations. In "Why is the Weather Important", Mullan points out how Austen uses the weather to set a mood and also as a plot device - sometimes bring characters together and sometimes keeping them apart. In "Do we Ever See the Lower Classes" he points out that even when servants aren't named, much of the behavior of the main characters is influenced by their presence, which contemporary readers of Austen would have felt more deeply than modern readers do. "What do characters say when the heroine isn't there?" contrasts the different novels in terms of how present the main heroine is and how that presence or point of view shapes the novel.

I also loved "Which important characters never speak in the novels" and the final two "When Does Jane Austen speak directly to the reader" and "How experimental a novelist is Jane Austen?" which spend some time placing her in comparison to other authors and analyzing the novelty and innovation of her writing technique.

Overall, I really loved this and I could see dipping into again at some point. Only recommended for someone very familiar with Austen's novels, though. Mullan assumes you'll remember all the scenes and characters that he throws into every essay without giving any background.

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LibraryThing member Yggie

What a great little book! I wouldn't say it's 20 crucial puzzles, and I don't think much is getting solved - but I do think these are 20 great little essays on topics in Jane Austen's books, obviously written with knowledge, respect, and great love. Definitely best if you already read at least

Austen's six completed novels and maybe even [b:Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon|208729|Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon|Jane Austen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1371223264l/208729._SY75_.jpg|1890744] Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon, if you're very determined.
I know for sure I'll go back to everything she wrote with more insight and admiration. Very much looking forward to that!

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