Jane's Fame

JANE'S FAME, one way or another, is about the nineteenth-century author, who has steadily gained literary worldwide prominence. The author suggests that Jane is the only writer in the world to be recognized by first name only. Harman traces the arc of her rise to fame, then settles into a revealing biography, analyzing the cultural influences on works that still resonate today. Wanda McCaddon vocally expresses her appreciation of the author's craft, as well as the personal and family life that inspired Austen's works. McCaddon narrates in a tone that recalls bygone eras, with an upper-class English accent and a genteel country sensibility that create an evocative atmosphere and transform this biography into an engaging listen. The ironies of romantic relationships are captivating, no matter the era in which they are imagined. A.W. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from December 21, 2009
Diverting anecdotes pepper award-winning British biographer Harman's (Myself and the Other Fellow: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson
) sharp and scholarly analysis of Jane Austen's life and the posthumous exploitation of her as a “global brand” having “everything to do with recognition and little to do with reading.” Tracing the rise and fall and rise of Austen's reputation against a larger historical backdrop, Harman chronicles the WWI-era worshipping “Janeites”; assessments of Austen that minimized her as an “accidental artist”; and modern post-feminist criticism that, in exploring her politics, sexual and otherwise, has placed Austen “in several mutually exclusive spheres at once.” Harman notes that film versions have taken liberties with and overshadowed Austen's books, concluding that “ne of the horrible ironies of Austen's currency in contemporary popular culture is that she is referenced so freely … in discussions of 'empowerment,' 'girl power,' and all the other travesties of womanly self-fashioning that stand in for feminism” today. Yet “it is impossible to imagine a time when she or her works could have delighted us long enough.” Harman herself delights with this comprehensive catalogue of Austen-mania. Illus.