Sophia's Reviews > Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend

Is it a memoir about a rare bookseller? Is it a collection of mini biographies into 18th century women writers? Is it a literary critique? Is it a how to in rare book collecting? Rebecca Romney, rare book dealer, collector and Pawn Stars TV show regular does all the above with Jane Austen’s Bookshelf.

The book opens with what set Ms. Romney on her journey to explore the authors and books Jane Austen enjoyed and ponder just why Jane Austen became a literary superstar and these other prominent women writers of their day are obscure reading in our time. Like many other Jane Austen fans, the author thirsted for more of the same after devouring Austen’s six novels, works, letters, and biographies. She noted Austen wasn’t shy about mentioning her own book favorites in letters and her own novels and this gave Ms. Romney the place to start.

While this was a book in which I appreciated all the subjects the author explored, it was also a book that came with busy internal distractions because the book was doing a lot all at once. I did better when I took the book in small size bites and absorbed it slowly. The author’s writing was very approachable, revealing as much about herself as she does the writers from the past. Written for armchair lay reader to serious scholar, all can appreciate what she says. I enjoyed her analysis the books she read, her comparisons and contrasts of those books to Austen’s works, paging through the Bibliography and Notes as well as exploring the rare book world, but, above all, learning about some literary talents maybe heretofore unknown.

Did Jane Austen’s Bookshelf ultimately answer the author’s original question and show the author finishing her quest to discover these Austen contemporary authors and why they were all but forgotten? Yes, it did. Rebecca Romney also left me with a strong desire to make a similar journey, trying out writings from these talented women authors and added to that, a delight in collecting books that take my fancy- rare or not.

I rec'd a print ARC from Simon and Schuster to read in exchange for an honest review.

My full review will post at The Quill Ink 4.10.25.