Choice 评论
With the striking exception of Anne Ruderman's Pleasures of Virtue (1995), the most important studies of Jane Austen for nearly three decades--from Alistair Duckworth's Improvement of the Estate (CH, Sep'72) and Marilyn Butler's Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (CH, Mar'76) to the recent work of Gary Kelley--have been historical and contextual, not rooted in close attention to texts. Waldron proves how much remains to be found in Austen's novels. Not merely a close reader, Waldron finds Austen speaking mainly to other novelists (and to conduct-writers) and less about contemporary realities. But one need not accept Waldron's thesis that, as an ironist, Austen seeks not to establish positions but to blur received distinctions. What makes this book so important is Waldron's persuasive attention to strands in the novels both overlooked and antithetical to established readings. Exquisitely sensitive to the faults of Austen's heroes, the author demonstrates why, in Austen's own terms, Fanny Price is more morally flawed than Emma Woodhouse, and how often Emma gets the better of Mr. Knightley. Though Waldron apparently takes pride in looking through the wrong end of the telescope, her evidence is so startlingly persuasive that all students of Austen will need to read her book with care. All academic collections. D. L. Patey; Smith College