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Reviews
Brodey's interpretations of Austen's writings are subtle and penetrating, and discussions of popular Austen film adaptations shed light on how Hollywood tramples over the novels' ambivalence. Austenites will want to take a look.
That Austen might be pushing her readers to separate the ideas of happiness and marriage in favor of introspection and self-actualization is a bold idea, but Ms. Brodey defends it with aplomb in this beautifully argued and original book.
Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness is not a book for hopeless romantics... Deploying tough love, Brodey reminds us that our desires are the consequence of getting confused between the countless screen adaptations of Austen and the original texts.
Brodey has written one of the most stimulating commentaries on Austen's narrative methods that I've read in a long time.
Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness examines the ambivalence embedded in Jane Austen's 'happy endings,' arguing that the novelist was resisting platitudes about marriage and favoring a more discerning, individualized understanding of happiness. Brodey writes with verve and clarity and draws judiciously on Austen criticism. Her book is savvy and insightful.
This accessible and lively book quizzes the seemingly tidy happily-ever-afters of Jane Austen's stories. Brodey's smart observations slide effortlessly back and forth between Austen's era and our own. Recommended for newly enlisted Janeites as well as perennial re-readers!
In this thoughtful and lively exploration of Austen's novels and their afterlives, Brodey is the first to investigate how the books' dismissive endings are self-conscious innovations—both artful and instructive. Brodey's nuanced readings illuminate the Janeite universe, teaching us to see a more complex (if imperfect) felicity.
From closely reading Jane Austen's marriage plots and their conclusions, Brodey radiates outward to consider literary antecedents, biographical contexts, and present-day adaptations. Never before have the social significances, emotional resonances, moral meanings, and philosophical underpinnings of Austen's notoriously problematic endings been so incisively explored and so convincingly explained.
Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness explores how her enduring novels offer both characters and readers alike far more than clichéd happy endings in marriage. By putting Austen's original plots and today's film adaptations in sparkling conversation, Brodey has given us a learned, allusive, provocative, and delightfully readable book.
Brodey shows that Jane Austen was that rare writer: a romantic novelist without romantic illusions. This is a subtle vindication of Austen's happy endings, demonstrating the artistry and tough-mindedness with which they are arranged. Like any really good book about Austen's fiction, it is also itself a delight to read.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x 9
Pages
320
ISBN
9781421448206
Illustration Description
37 halftones, 4 line drawings
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Introduction. "Perfect Felicity"
1. Commonplace Happiness
2. Expecting Literary Justice
3. The Limits of Romance
4. The Thin Veil of Comedy
5. The Art of English Happiness
6. Resources for
List of Figures
Introduction. "Perfect Felicity"
1. Commonplace Happiness
2. Expecting Literary Justice
3. The Limits of Romance
4. The Thin Veil of Comedy
5. The Art of English Happiness
6. Resources for Solitude
Conclusion. Co-Authoring Happiness
Acknowledgements
Further Reading and Viewing
Notes
Index
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