Oxford historian Kathryn Sutherland has provided an unusual glimpse of Jane Austen in Jane Austen in 41 Objects. It of course explores how little we know of Jane Austen, even to not having a proper portrait of her. In the book, Sutherland assembles 41 objects that have some connection to Austen and discusses each object and its relevance. These objects extend from things she actually touched or owned, like the table she wrote at, her pelisse, or a lock of her hair, to contemporary items such as the check stub of her publisher showing a payment, a silhouette of her mother made in honor of her birth, to more modern objects such as Colin Firth’s “wet” shirt or illustrations of costumes from the first stage production of Pride and Prejudice. Some of them are touching.
The Introduction to the book is scholarly and sometimes opaque. I was hoping as I read it that the body of the book wasn’t like that, and it was not. It was very readable except for a few sentences in the last chapter that get a little esoteric.
The format of each short chapter is to show the photo of the object, tell what is known about it, and in the last paragraph quickly describe its provenance and where it is located now.
What? Me Read? 