About book What Matters In Jane Austen?: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved (2012)
A nice set of essays on "puzzles" in Austen's novels, including "why is it risky to go to the seaside?", "which important characters never speak in the novels"?, and "what do characters say when the heroine is not there?"The essays assume familiarity with Austen's plots, and thankfully do not include too much unnecessary plot summary. Overall, they are more accessible than academic, though Mullan does provide an extensive bibliography for readers who'd like to explore these questions further. Some of the topics will be very familiar to anyone who's thought about or studied Austen at length ("How do characters look?"; "Is there any sex in Jane Austen?"; "When does Jane Austen speak directly to the reader?") and Mullan's analysis can feel a tad gestural in these places. In the essay on Austen's free indirect discourse, for example, Mullan takes for granted that readers will always know the difference between the narrator's voice and a character's free indirect discourse, instead of exploring how much of the narrative innovation and pleasure in Austen is often found precisely in the slippage between those two poles and the way the narrative often leaves it up to the reader to decide who is speaking (with repercussions for plot, characterization, etc, based on what the reader decides). There's also a bit of an over-reliance on the idea that all readers will react in the same ways that's surprising coming from a researcher of Mullan's caliber. Mullan's writing style is, fittingly for a book on Austen, a pleasure to read. I think this set of essays would be excellent for use in a high school or undergraduate setting -- either using the questions that Mullan provides to kick off discussion or assigning relevant essays in lieu of/addition to heavier critical articles. I'd also recommend this book for enthusiastic readers of Austen who'd like to dig a bit deeper into the novels -- for these readers, I think the book does an excellent job of creating the atmosphere of a good undergraduate seminar or book club discussion. It's clear from these essays that Mullan loves, admires, and understands Jane Austen, which should be all the recommendation he needs to her many dedicated fans. He's a bit of a bore in some chapters, only handing out quotes and examples like dry facts, without many ideas or comments and naturally ending up repeating himself. Sometimes I felt like I was reading a commentary from my highschool textbooks - like when he insisted on counting (and commenting!) every instance in every book when the POV switches from the heroine to other characters. Then some other chapters are very insightful, like the one about why some characters don't speak or the names characters call each other or that tidbit about how Miss Bates' ramblings essentially give out everything that's going on in Emma. Still, the ideas/no of pages ratio disappointed me. Maybe I'm not a sufficiently devout Janeite to take imense pleasure in this book but I don't regret finishing it because at least it made me make an effort to remember the plot & characters of her books that were foggy (watched most of the movies based on the novels - I think only Emma and P&P were left unwatched).
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Very illuminating. Makes me want to re-read them all again.
—pancha
For the total Jane fanatic only. I really enjoyed it!
—17910em
Extremely interesting book for all Janeites!
—Agwise98
