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

I am so emotional about how much I loved this. My favorite book of the year so far, though admittedly, it is rather early.

Rare book collector Rebecca Romney chronicles her exploration of the women novelists who preceded and influenced Jane Austen. I was worried it would be too dry, but it so was not. Romney is not an academic, so this is written fairly casually. There were plenty of women writing well-regarded fiction during and before Austen's time - Austen referenced many in her own writing. Romney argues that the literary canon has basically forgotten them for reasons that are largely fickle and random, and that Austen, while incredible, may not be as singular as the literary canon would have us believe.

This was both a personal memoir of book collecting in addition to a history, and it was so perfectly exactly what I wanted. Now I have to go buy a physical copy, because I want to be able to refer back to it. I learned so many things, and now think I want to maybe check out Frances Burney and potentially a couple of others.

I'd also be lying if I said this didn't get me thinking a lot about Austen herself. Apparently it's her 250th birthday this year, so I feel a distinct theme coming on in my upcoming reading.