Mary Beard's The Invention of Jane Harrison (Revealing Antiquity 14) perfectly illustrates the frightening, hilarious, and absurd situation occurring the world over in academia today. And the book's publisher is none less than Harvard University Press. Beard clearly has connections in high places.

Beard has unearthed-I use 'unearthed' here in its figurative sense-a lot of 'new'--or, 'recent,' 'current'--'information'--by which I hope to suggest 'information' as a new paradigm in the process of 'evolution'---about Harrison-by which I purposely refer to not 'Jane Harrison' 'herself' but to the constellation of thoughts, theories, and 'historical' ideas which we generally assume to be 'identical' with its 'subject'-by this I am suggesting that the unconscious 'assumption' of a biographical 'subject' by both 'author' and the 'assumed' reader is a fallacy--by 'fallacy,' I suggest not its 'original' meaning of 'guile' or 'trickery' but its present-day usage of a plausible 'idea' based around-I use 'around' in the figurative sense in this case--a false inference-with which 'she,'-- by which I refer to 'Beard'-who is not 'identical' to a living person but an abstract idea we agree to refer to as 'Mary Beard'--could have made remarkable use.

As 'Beard'-not the facial hair worn by men but the 'author'-is an Cambridge 'scholar'-in itself an 'elitist' conception worth challenging-'she,' by which I hope to suggest to the 'reader' 'author' 'Beard,' and not the conceptual formation which 'we' are using as our 'subject' and calling 'Jane Harrison'-might have made better use of if 'turned over'-in the figurative sense-her 'findings'-by which I intend to suggest that elements of existence-by 'existence' I do not make use of Sartre's conception of 'such' or imply an 'existential' 'imperative'-can be 'lost' and 'recovered' though perhaps, as man--men and women inclusive--are limited to five (5) 'senses'-'senses' being an idea formation worth 'investigating'--have always been, in 'fact' present but not until 'now'-not the moment I am writing, creating, and 'thinking' this--but the moment it is conceivably 'perpetually'--that is to say, 'infinite' but not in the theological sense--being absorbed in the literal--I use 'literal' literally here--sense--not to be mistaken for 'senses' above--by its presumed 'reader'-or 'readers'--

If the reader can stomach 150 very small pages (the rest is documentation) of useless, loopy backtracking, second-guessing text, and Beard's inability to write a straight sentence without multiple unnecessary qualifications, then this book, which can confidently assume nothing and finds its style clearly necessary and delightful, might find an audience, if said readers are willing to push through and come out the other side exhausted, none the wiser, and empty handed.

The Invention of Jane Harrison is primarily about Mary Beard and her thought processes, and presents Harrison--when it finally forgets itself and remembers to deliver her up-as a kind of stuffed partridge in an Edwardian museum display case. Pretentious, smug, and yet so nice and gentile, this book rightly belongs on no one's shelf. By taking on such an eminent subject, Beard mortally underscores her vacuity as a writer and thinker. ...Forget the logrolling praise this project has received. For cynical careerists only. Everyone else, run for the hills.

Jane Ellen Harrison, a pioneer for women in classical studies in British academic circles, has had a fluctuating reputation in and out of her profession. Her "Prolegomena" had a good reception among the scholars who dominated work in ancient Greek religion in the first half of the twentieth century, but its sequel, "Themis," had to wait decades for appreciation, by which time its use of social anthropology was beginning to show its age. Awareness of her work may be strongest among: (a) feminists; and (b) those interested in the myth-and-ritual "school" with which, along with Gilbert Murray and F. M. Cornford, she is generally associated.

A biography was announced not long after her death in 1928, but a full treatment had to wait for Sandra J. Peacock's "Jane Ellen Harrison: The Mask and the Self," in 1988, which revealed a good deal more than earlier sketches. These tended to be laudatory, or else dismissive remarks on the obsolete views of a dead colleague. (She had left no students in professional posts to defend their teacher, her male proteges having been part of the generation lost to World War I).

Beard attempts a re-evaluation of Harrison's life, career, and place in the history of classical studies. Parts of her presentation of academic infighting and jealousies will fascinate those already familiar with players, or interested in group dynamics, and evidently bore others, but these accounts, based on ample documentation, seem more solid than her speculations about Harrison's closely-guarded inner life. Beard's reflections on the muddled evidence and the myth-making process at work in official biographies will be of interest mostly to those already acquainted with the literature.

A major problem with Beard's argument is that so much of Harrison's posthumous reputation rests on people and movements outside the circle of professional classicists. E. S. Strong, her preferred rival for Harrison's position as a leading woman in the academic world of the time, was a hard-working archeologist specializing in early Italy. Besides the problem of associating with the Fascist regime during the years in which Harrison's posthumous public reputation was being promoted by her friends, Strong was not dealing with matters of great interest to a wide public. Harrison, with her analysis of Greek myth and religion in terms of basic human needs and anxieties, and her use of ancient popular culture and superstitions to re-interpret familiar classics, was surely a better candidate as a heroine whose work, while sometimes difficult to follow, was often exciting. I found Beard's work informative, and frequently very interesting, but too narrowly focussed to explain Harrison's continuing prestige.