Read the earlier edition of this several years ago for research. Now reading for fun and enjoying it immensely!
Read the earlier edition of this several years ago for research. Now reading for fun and enjoying it immensely!
Used my birthday Barnes & Noble gift cards to pick up these beauties! Very excited to read them both. 😁
The first 2/3 of Byrne's new edition are excellent overviews of the theatre, playwriting during Austen's lifetime, and her opinion of playgoing as reflected in her letters (tl;dr: she liked theatre, had decided opinions on actors). Byrne starts to fall off in examining the influence of theatre on the novels - 2 chapters examine Mansfield Park; 1 each for Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, & Emma; none for Persuasion or Northanger Abbey.
This is kind of amazing re: Georgian theatre, but it makes sense. What else were people supposed to do with themselves for entertainment (that was socially acceptable)? As Emma Thompson said in the commentary track for Sense and Sensibility, there wasn't any Telly in those days.
I did a little retail therapy today (Chaucer-kitteh is not new, he's just a ham 😂)
Articles on Austen celebrating 200 years - review of names book just one of them. Love this cover with the books on the hat!