Susan J. Wolfson

Jane Austen at her best - so much better than the humorless MANSFIELD PARK, whose annotated edition I read earlier this year. Jane as narrator is just a barrel of laughs in this one. I bookmarked a few of my favorite quotes.

"Mrs. Allen immediately recognized the features of a former schoolfellow and intimate, whom she had seen only once since their respective marriages, and that many years ago. Their joy on this meeting was very great, as well it might, since they had been contented to know show more nothing of each other for the last fifteen years."

"It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire; how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin, and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted, the sprigged, the mull or the jackonet."

"The expectations of his friend Morland, from the first over-rated, had ever since his introduction to Isabella, been gradually increasing; and by merely adding twice as much for the grandeur of the moment, by doubling what he chose to think the amount of Mr. Morland's preferment, trebling his private fortune, bestowing a rich aunt, and sinking half the children, he was able to represent the whole family to the General in a most respectable light."

The annotations are mostly excellent. Quibble, after a while it felt like they became downright harping on the lack of feminine power in Austen's society, constantly conjecturing whether in this passage or that she was commenting on it, insinuating on it, etc. show less

This small anthology collects three stories from the "long nineteenth century" about doubles, along with some supporting materials (letter, contemporary reviews, other works by the same authors, related works by contemporary authors). The first story is "Transformation" by Mary Shelley, which begins like much of her work, with a dull life story before it finally gets to the meat-- which is over a bit too fast and a bit too simply. Some good ideas, but when I read a lot of early horror, I show more feel like later writers do it better. Frankenstein this isn't, nor even The Last Man.

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," by good old Robert Louis Stevenson,  is one of those stories you suspect might play out better if the whole thing wasn't completely embedded in contemporary popular culture already.  Shock, horror-- they're the same guy! It's not the only book to have such an affliction, though, and I feel like Dracula has weathered that problem much better for some reason.

That leaves us, then, with the best of these stories: Conrad's "The Secret Sharer." I've read little Conrad before (basically just Lord Jim), but I come away with the impression that I must read more. What an odd, immersive story; you totally buy into the protagonist's perspective, and you feel every hit. The book is unsettling because its protagonist is unsettled, and in the end, I was genuinely fearful for the ship and its crew in a way I haven't been for a long time. A sharply written delight. show less

On Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by Susan J Wolfson, offers the reader both a historically contextualized view of Wollstonecraft and her work as well as a way to bring it into the present.

As I noticed in the other two books I've read in the Core Knowledge series, emphasis is on making the work relevant to contemporary readers as well as understanding the world within which it was created. This is no doubt due in large part to being drawn from an actual course show more yet also shows an interest and desire in helping us to, as they say, learn from the past. While the arguments are certainly part of what we can learn, I think understanding how Wollstonecraft responded to issues in her time can help us respond to the issues in ours. This short volume goes a long way toward encouraging just such engagement with A Vindication.

It had been years, okay, a couple decades, since I had read Wollstonecraft and this not only encouraged me to do so again but gave me new, and more nuanced, ways into the text. I think this can be a valuable read for both someone about to read her work and those of us who are revisiting it. For that reason, I would recommend it to anyone with an interest.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

Northanger Abbey may not be Austen's most polished novel, but it has a youthful exuberance and charm that I really enjoy. Catherine Morland is the main character; she is young, only 17, and on her own for the first time in Bath. She meets two families, the Thorpe brother and sister, John and Isabella, and the Tilney brother and sister, Eleanor and Henry. These two sets couldn't be more different - the Thorpes are all show and poor behavior, and the Tilneys have class, wit, and proper show more etiquette.

Austen strongly inserts herself into this novel, something which she does in all her novels but in this one I feel her sarcasm and wit most strongly. I think it's the main reason I like this novel so much; I feel like she is unable to hide her own voice in writing this and I love that.

This annotated edition is published by Harvard/Belknap press. It's a beautiful, enormous, hard cover book with beautiful pictures and interesting annotations. Susan Wolfson does a good job with the annotations - lots of info about the references to other authors and pointing out authorial techniques. show less