Writers have long rhapsodised about real estate – or the difficulty acquiring it – but contemporary authors are asking awkward questions about the inequities of our property obsession.
Zora Simic has never been married, nor wanted to. She assesses two new books about feminism and marriage – Clementine Ford’s polemic against it and Rachael Lennon’s history of its reformation.
From left: Virginia Woolf, Rachel Cusk (Vianney Le Caer/AP), Maggie Nelson (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation – also background), Jane Gleeson-White (Pauline Futeran).
When Jane Gleeson-White’s marriage ended two years after her mother died, she lost her voice. Books by women writers like Rachel Cusk, Olivia Laing and Maggie Nelson helped her find it again.
A family reacts to news of the father’s bankruptcy in a 19th century engraving.
gameover/Alamy Stock Photo
A UK university has attached a trigger warning to Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen’s biting satire, for ‘toxic relationships’. Ironically, Jodi McAlister loves it for the gentle romance at its centre.
Elizabeth Bennet and George Wickham talk over dessert in Pride and Prejudice.
British Library
Music is featured in most of Jane Austen’s novels and recent research is teaching us more about her personal love of music. What can it tell us about the world of Jane Austen?
People have always wanted others to know they’re smart, and what better way to do that than with clothes?
Substantial cultural commentary and numerous studies addressed how the ‘infamous’ novel influenced both readers and the publishing industry.
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The controversial fantasy novel and its sequels enticed more authors to experiment with self-publishing, but the latter has a history that long predates the steamy bestseller.
‘Bridgerton’ alludes to and obscures social, racial and political tensions in England’s Regency era, the extraordinary decade that marks the dawn of the modern world.
Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, and Emilie François in Ang Lee’s film of Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Columbia Pictures
Clueless turns 25 this year. The film, a loose adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, is a cult classic that has spawned books, a TV series, a musical and countless fashion tributes.
Emma up front and center in new adaptation of classic novel.
Focus Features
Through careful framing and dialogue, Autumn de Wilde’s movie portrays Emma as the embodiment of perfection, rather than less-than-faultless heroine of Austen’s book.