A historian and Austen-lover's take on the Jane canon: this is a terrific book! MacDonagh has a chapter on each of the major novels, filled with insight on a particular social/historical aspect. "Emma and Social Traffic", for example, examines the relationships among the characters in order to illuminate the social framework of Highbury-like towns in the Regency...or is it vice versa? This is a book aimed at those who have read most or all of Austen's works, but for those of us in that category, Jane Austen's Real and Imagined Worlds provides a way to revisit the beloved novels in a new light, and with a most erudite and entertaining guide.

Jane Austen is just a phenomenal writer, and if you have the opportunity to get most of her works in one, go for it (though ideally, go for her complete works because you won't be disappointed!). In each of the four works the characters are so full of life you feel as though you are an invisible person looking in on their lives, the descriptions of early 19th century life is dead-on and wonderful for us history buffs, and the stories are so captivating that you won't want to stop reading them! Go on ahead, buy the book!

I am a Jane Austen fan, to say the least. I have read all her works and enjoyed them. The only thing that annoyed me was the fact that I knew little about culture and life in her day. When I saw this book I was very excited. It gives a brief history of England (during the time of Jane Austen's life), a biography of Ms. Austen, explination of the culture, and detailed explinations of each book. This book is packed with pictures and maps that are also very helpful and give each of Jane Austen's stories a "face." If you are a Austen fan, you need to read this book!

I have enjoyed Jane Austin's books for a long time. Claudia Johnson helped me see how the books would be seen in Austin's time which increased my understanding and love of the books. As an example, Elizabeth Bennett is an unconventional heroine. Her laughter and energy was extremely unusual and was the sort of behavior that conservative fiction and propriety books of the time saw as improper. It was easy for me to miss this point since Elizabeth is the sort of person that we are expected to admire today.

This book definately comes from a political and feminist viewpoint. At the time Austin was writing, the patriarchal society was considered an important part of England's defense against the ideas of the French Revolution. Johnson looks at how Austin examines and questions the assumptions of conservative thought while working within its accepted framework. She also highlights the irony that runs through Austin's work.

I have read other critisms of Jane Austin's books as this is the one that has had the most to say to me.

Halperin really did his homework and debunks myths that Austen was all smiles and sweetness. Don't get me wrong, by no means does he speak badly of the author. He just portrays her as a human being with emotions, sarcasim and wit who had a not-so-perfect life or career.

In his intro he states that the author of such books as Sense and Sensibility could not have been all manners and niceness. Anyone who reads her books has to feel the same. Halperin suggests there is a little bit of autobiography in Austen's works and documents his opinions with letters from Jane to her sister.

Great read!

As one not normally interested in the works of Jane Austen (I can hear the mob howling already), it took quite a lot of self-persuasion to open Ray Smith's book, 'The man Who Loved Jane Austen'. Of course I had become the owner of the book not by choice, but through the kindness of a very good friend. Despite my initial doubts, I very soon found myself being happily pulled along by a gripping story of greed and deception played out by the Hatchers. An old Montreal family of upper class, narrow-minded bigots, whose power and poison is aimed at Frank, the recently widowed son-in-law, father of their two grandchildren and the main protagonist.

From the beginning one can only feel frustrated with this honest, reliable, plodding, university lecturer, who clearly loved his wife and dotes on his children and who remains for much of the time frustratingly oblivious to the evil plotting and planning unfolding around him.
The story weaves its way through the stages of this tale of treachery, only occasionally bursting through the straight jacket of misguided principles and petite nationalism of the Hatchers and their cronies, to give the reader the odd
flicker of hope in this otherwise grey tale. Ray Smith describes beautifully the vacation Frank and the children made to Nova Scotia. A very evocative piece, reminding me of my own trips to the Scottish Highlands and of how I can easily remember the feeling of the pure air in your face and the decency of the people in the safety of their
remoteness. But then Frank had Aunt Al living there. A Nova Scotian lady of quite a different stamp altogether.

For someone who opened the pages of this book rather more under duress that desire, I can vouch for a really excellent, 'can't put the book down' read. For those who already enjoy the ubiquitous Jane Austen, this must be a very satisfying alternative.

This book, really opened a new world of love and bateral, a classic, i've read it millions of time, i find it a soothing book, and i highly sujest reading it, if u ever have the time. It teachs leasons that are no longer taught and shows the charm of a proud man, whose not as he seems, it goes behing the love of the two oldest sisters out of five. Jane and Elizabeth,both learn to love and both learn to hate with a pasion that no book could possably beat in any way.

For many years, scholars that have studied Jane Austen have made emphasis on her quality as both a novelist and a moralist. Gene Koppel brings something more to the discussion. Koppel wants to present the religious aspects of the novels of Jane Austen. The author believes that even when there is not much explicit reference to religion in Jane Austen's novels, the values that are presented in many of her characters are a result of Jane Austen's religious beliefs. Koppel defends his point of view using different sources. In the second part of the book the author analizes Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Pride and Prejudice using a traditional religious interpretation based on Jane Austen's own Anglican beliefs. However, Koppel's discussion is mostly based on the latter novels, with focus on topics like the role of contingency in Mansfield Park and the question of the self and its fulfillment in Persuasion. Koppel expresses his arguments with an articulate and systematic line of thought. The book is a great opportunity to analize Jane Austen in a more profound light, in contrast with some other more frivoulous approaches to the work of the great novelist.

I know many people think Pride and Prejudice is Austen's best work and that Emma is everyone's favorite. But, for me, this one is both her best and my favorite. With this book I think Austen covers nearly all the issues that her other books individually concentrate on - for instance, a woman can't inherit any money, yet she also can't have a job, the marriage hierarchy, people marry for security not for love, influences of marriage and what makes the final decision. All the other Austen books discuss these issues specifically, but here the reader is confronted with them all at once. Beautiful book - and great for a book club - it generates a lot of thoughts and questions.

I loved this book. It was the first Jane Austen book I have read and I can't wait to read more!