Biographies and Criticism

Samuel Clemens vs. Jane Austen: Never the Twain Shall Meet?

Mark Twain loved taking stabs at Jane Austen’s work–but did he really hate her as much as he claimed?

How Did Jane Austen Get So Famous?

The Oxford Times has a short interview with Claire Harman, author of Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World (Canongate Books), a book that I read as part of my Austen Challenge and definitely recommend. Jane didn’t grow popular until decades after her death, but since then her books have remained constantly in print [...]

The Bitch in a Bonnet

Sometimes it takes a guy to remind many of us women what Jane Austen was really about. In his new blog, Bitch in a Bonnet, Robert Rodi, author of satirical novels, explains why Jane Austen is one of his influences and why it pisses him off that he can’t tell people that because she’s widely [...]