Searching for Jane Austen

Searching for Jane Austen demolishes with wit and vivacity the often-held view of ""Jane,"" a decorous maiden aunt writing her small drawing-room stories of teas and balls. Emily Auerbach presents a different Jane Austen - a brilliant writer who, despite the obstacles facing women of her time, worked seriously on improving her craft and became one of the world's greatest novelists - a master of wit, irony, and character development. In this beautifully illustrated and lively work, Auerbach surveys two centuries of editing, censoring, and distorting Austen's life and writings. She samples Austen's flamboyant, risque adolescent works featuring heroines who get drunk, lie, steal, and throw rivals out of windows. Auerbach demonstrates that Austen constantly improved her skills by setting herself a new challenge in each of her novels. She considers Austen's final irreverent writings, discusses her tragic death at the age of forty-one, and ferrets out ridiculous modern adaptations and illustrations, including ads, cartoons, book jackets, newspaper articles, plays, and films from our own time.