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

4.5 stars. I liked this a lot, despite the author’s self-professed “feminist rage” and some bitterness about religion (due to an oppressive Mormon upbringing). Her research on each leading lady was incredibly thorough; she had studied their works, lives, letters and the people that influenced and befriended them. In each chapter, she wove fascinating anecdotes about her trade as a rare book dealer—something I now want to learn more about!
I, of course, disliked her bitterness about morality (especially in her chapter about Hannah Moore), and her disdain for marriage and childrearing (although granted, many of the women she studied were in terrible marriages). But the good outweighs the bad in this, and I couldn’t put this down. This book was less about how Jane Austen was influenced by these women, and more about how Jane Austen wasn’t the only gem of a woman writer to have lived in the 1800s. I definitely want to read some of these evidently very talented and influential women writers!