{"product_id":"jane-austens-bookshelf-a-rare-book-collectors-quest-to-find-the-women-writers-who-shaped-a-legend","title":"Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show \u003ci\u003ePawn Stars\u003c\/i\u003e, a page-turning literary adventure featuring \"your favorite author's favorite authors\" (\u003ci\u003eToday\u003c\/i\u003e)--the women who inspired Jane Austen--that's \"a meditation on reading and writing, on honesty and self-discovery--and on what books can teach us, if we let them\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLong before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen's books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut Austen wasn't a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers--and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen's work. Every character in \u003ci\u003eNorthanger Abbey\u003c\/i\u003e who isn't a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in \u003ci\u003eMansfield Park\u003c\/i\u003e is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase \"pride and prejudice\" came from Frances Burney's second novel \u003ci\u003eCecilia\u003c\/i\u003e. The women that populated Jane Austen's bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn't Romney--despite her training--ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eJane Austen's Bookshelf\u003c\/i\u003e investigates the disappearance of Austen's heroes--women writers who were erased from the Western canon--to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth--and recounts Romney's experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen's. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen's bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. \u003ci\u003eJane Austen's Bookshelf\u003c\/i\u003e will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.","brand":"Scribner Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51947827265767,"sku":"9781982190255","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0449\/4075\/5096\/files\/imageloader_b9eec2ae-b22e-4108-b5f3-b68bf8b1d87d.jpg?v=1775502270","url":"https:\/\/arvidabookco.com\/products\/jane-austens-bookshelf-a-rare-book-collectors-quest-to-find-the-women-writers-who-shaped-a-legend","provider":"Arvida Book Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}