Monday Ebooks: Been There, Done That Edition
Alert Janeites Victoria and Lisa sent us a link to an article in the Globe and Mail about “the next Jane Austen.” Before our Gentle Readers rise as one, pitchforks and torches in hand, the author of the piece is doing much what we do when we post our occasional “what to read when you’ve read all of Jane Austen” posts (one here, another here). In fact, the four authoresses suggested have all appeared in those posts.
They can look to the writers whose books were beloved by Jane Austen herself, the early women novelists who laid the groundwork, both stylistically and socially, for Austen’s achievement. These 18th-century authors were blending satire and sentiment before Austen ever put pen to paper, and their personal lives – invariably more dramatic than Austen’s – would appear positively racy if given the Hollywood treatment.
Austen paid homage to some of these writers in her own novels, borrowing character names, plot contrivances and (in the case of Northanger Abbey) the entire premise of her book. And who are we to argue with Jane Austen’s literary opinions?
We are all enthusiasm for such a reading program (though we wonder why the article subhead says “rereading Emma for the 32nd time” like it’s a bad thing). Since it’s Monday Ebooks, we would like to point out a few places where ebook versions of these authors’ works might be downloaded or accessed for free.
Girlebooks has free ebooks by Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, and Fanny Burney available for download. Manybooks has free ebooks by all four authors available (make sure to search for “Eliza Fowler Haywood” to find her books). Project Gutenberg also has free versions available of books by all four authors. Can’t beat the price, so give them a try!
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Not sure if anyone has mentioned this:
There is an iPhone application, Stanza, that allows you to search, download and read Project Gutenberg books on your iPhone. I read The 39 Steps through it just a few weeks ago. It was surprisingly satisfying. I worried that it would be difficult on my eyes. I’m relatively sure the app is a free one. I’ve waffled on getting a Kindle and I think this is an adequate substitute to test drive before the investment of money and the addition of yet another ‘techno component’ into my life.
I need to get in gear and post more of these “Austen-ish” books on Girlebooks. I hadn’t heard of Eliza Haywood. Has anyone read her? It looks like she wrote loads, but only two are available on Manybooks.
mjryan: There’s also an application for iPhone or iPod Touch called “eReader” that does much the same thing. Both Stanza and eReader can pull books from the Fictionwise.com bookstore, manybooks.net, and other archives and stores.
Laura: I just ran into three more works by Eliza Haywood at A Celebration of Women Writers
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/haywood/fantomina/fantomina.html
http://digital.lib.upenn.edu/women/haywood/idalia/idalia.html
http://digital.lib.upenn.edu/women/haywood/fatal/fatal.html
eReader is also available for the Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Pocket PC, Symbian, and desktop Windows and Mac.
Mobipocket is also available for most portable devices, including BlackBerry and several dedicated ebook reading devices. No iPhone support yet.
Stanza is a really exciting app. I’m hoping it is ported to the new Palm Pre when it comes out–I am most likely going to get one. I dare say eReader will be ported and might even come with the device, as it has with most Palm OS devices.
Oh, and here’s a list of Eliza Haywood’s books at Wikisource, including the text for another book. The anti-Pamela! That’s two Pamela parodies I’m aware of (Henry Fielding also wrote one called Shamela).
Reading on a smartphone or other portable device is a great way to try ebooks–that’s how I started. I prefer my dedicated eInk device for extensive reading, however, as it’s much easier on my eyes. While my Treo has a camera, and it’s okay for unexpected snaps, I would never use it as my main camera for important photos–my Canon point and shoot is vastly superior, and most serious photographers get digital SLRs. Same with ereader devices, I think–for serious work, you need a device that is made for the task. For those of us who read quite a bit, if we’re going to get serious about ebooks, a dedicated device such as the Kindle, Sony Reader, or my Cybook are the best for the job. But I keep Jane Austen’s books and a few others on my Treo for emergencies!
Hey Matthew, fancy running into you here! Thanks for the links–will check them out.