Ed Caesar
Jane’s Friends
SIX AUSTEN NOVELS, six chapters, six members: sounds neat doesn’t it? Except The Jane Austen Book Club, a novel centred around a Californian ‘all-Jane-Austen-all-the- time’ reading group, belies its formal symmetry to offer us something less smug and more enriching than we might expect. With a narrative devoted to the monthly gatherings of the six Austen-lovers, one might also have anticipated several arch parodies of Austen’s work to be foisted clumsily upon the reader, but not so – the references are understated enough for even the most ardent Janeite to miss a few.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Thirkell was a product of her time and her class. For her there are no sacred cows, barring those that win ribbons at the Barchester Agricultural.'
The novelist Angela Thirkell is due a revival, says Patricia T O'Conner (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad
'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency