Of bits of ivory
The Oxford University Press has announced the release of a new book on Jane Austen, titled “A Fine Brush of Ivory: An Appreciation of Jane Austen”, written by Richard Jenkyns.
Focusing largely on Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma, but with many diverting side trips to Austen’s other novels, Jenkyns shines a loving light on the exquisite craftsmanship and profound moral imagination that informs her writing. Readers will find, for instance, a wonderful discussion of characterization in Austen. Jenkyns’s insight into figures such as Mr. Bennett or Mrs. Norris is brilliant–particularly his portrait of the amusing, clever, always ironic Mr. Bennett, whose humor (Jenkyns shows) arises out of a deeply unhappy and disappointing marriage. The author pays due homage to Austen’s unmatched skill with complex plotting–the beauty with which the primary plot and the various subplots are woven together–highlighting the infinite care she took to make each plot detail as natural and as plausible as possible. Perhaps most important, Jenkyns illuminates the heart of Austen’s moral imagination: she is constantly aware, throughout her works, of the nearness of evil to the comfortable social surface. She knows that the socially acceptable sins may be truly cruel and vicious, knows that society can be red in tooth and claw, and yet she allows the pleasures of comedy and celebration to subordinate them.
The OUP site offers the cover book for $25 (without S&H), but some research done by the excellent AustenBlog Central Bargain Hunters found the book available for $17 on amazon.com
If anyone reads this, we’d love to read a review!
