Weekend Bookblogging: Lists Edition
Welcome to Weekend (sometimes Friday) Bookblogging, in which we share links related to Jane Austen’s novels or books about or related to them.
Norman Geras at Normblog wonders how any list purporting to be of the 100 greatest authors of all time cannot include Jane Austen. We have to agree with that, especially since about a dozen authors on that list wouldn’t have been there without Jane Austen to pave the way for them.
Joan Wickersham at the Boston Globe wonders how Jane Austen would feel if she had a laptop and, you know, Googled herself. Or more properly, Amazoned herself.
Charles McGrath at The New York Times notices that dead authors can’t complain (or sue) when their works are co-opted for homages and sequels. But at least he also points out that sequels don’t necessarily stink; Wide Sargasso Sea, for instance. We’re still waiting for the Austen fandom’s WSS, though we find some of the paraliterature quite readable!
That’s it for this week’s Bookblogging, so until next time, Gentle Readers, always remember: Books Are Nice!
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Re the Austen omission: Good grief, what were they thinking? I also noticed that the list of “100 greatest authors” lumps Emily Bronte and Charlotte Bronte together (#58). And all it can say about Charlotte is that she discovered her sister’s talents and became the more prolific of the two. The authors of the list couldn’t even count these two women as separate individuals deserving of two separate spots on their list. No, that would have ruined their title because then they would have to write 101 instead of 100.