This was a wonderful exploration of 26 themes present across Austen’s works and personal letters, written with an academic minded analysis that delves into the different aspects of her work and life in an inviting and accessible way. It made me incredibly nostalgic for my university days where I was researching Austen, and this would be a great resource for anyone doing the same - but it’s also an insightful and intriguing read for anyone who is a fan of this literary star from the Georgian era. This book sheds new light and meaning on Austen’s writing and makes me want to dive straight back into her books for another re-read!

I love books that explains the world, places, and event in a beloved author's life and this one was well researched and informative.
I loved it and learned a lot.
Perfect for anyone who loves Austen and her age.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This would be a fantastic book for anyone who is obsessed with Jane Austen, her life and her work. It is well researched, written and formatted. I guarantee you will learn something new about the beloved Jane Austen.

An A-Z of Jane Austen is an enticing collection of themes related to Austen including places, concepts, activities and practices and personhood. Each of her novels and other writings such as letters are used as references in this witty, sharp, thoughtful and delectable book. I love that it causes one to think and (re)interpret...so many examples but I will pay particular attention next time I re-read such as Lady Middleton's headdress grazing her daughter's neck in the Accident section, one of my favourites. Not only does the reader re-live scenes but look at them differently and contemplate the reasoning behind such details.

B is for Bath and before reading this book I had not thought of the fact that no one in Austen's books originates from Bath but some do visit the beautiful city. The F for Friendship section is wonderful and provides insight into pseudo friendships such as with Catherine Morland and Isabella Thorpe. Some are even expelled. Gifts are powerful things, as the author notes. She explains why. The Illness chapter is gripping as well. In ways it was fashionable and exaggerated as "performance". Letters are included for a plethora of reasons and the "xis" code bit later on is especially enchanting. Saying No (often in a muddled fashion) is another compelling chapter. Servants are in stories but are never more than glimpses and brief appearances. This is just a sliver of what to expect in this delightful book.

Jane Austen is one of my most beloved authors and always will be. I bet she would enjoy reading this! What fun it would be to learn her thoughts on it. Adoring fans of Austen (and those who simply wish more insight into her writing and life) will enjoy learning more.

My sincere thank you to Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this simultaneously fun and eye-opening book

“𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒚 '𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑', 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒆-𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒔.“

I will request any book that references Jane Austen on Netgalley and I will not apologize for it! This book is a collection of essays using an A-Z format to highlights recurring themes in her life and stories (I is for Illness, L for letters, etc)

Overall, a well developed dive into her work. Given the A-Z format, it jumps around a bit but the plus side being you can then read any essay in any order, too. This was a great one for me to have on my kindle app whenever I was waiting for an appointment or had a few minutes to kill to read another essay. Definitely reads more like an encyclopedia, rather than lively stories.

📚Read this if you like:
⁃ Anything Jane Austen
⁃ General author research

My ratings:
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"An A-Z of Jane Austen" by Michael Greaney is a great read for any Austen fans out there and I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy once it hits shelves. The book takes readers through an "A to Z" list of themes and motifs from Austen's books, letters, and juvenilia. I found it to be extremely interesting to think back on my past experiences reading Austen through the lens of some of the topics in this book. This book would make a fantastic gift for any individual who loves Austen and is interested in adding more context to her work.

A FRESH LOOK AT AUSTEN AND HER AUTHORSHIP

I love all things Austen. I'll read the book. I'll watch the movies. And I'll read every retelling, prequel and sequel. So this book was certainly right up my alley. And I was not disappointed. I would recommend this book to all Austenites!

👍 What I Enjoyed 👍

Themes: This is an encyclopedia of Austen's world and authorship. For each letter of the alphabet, Greany has chosen a word connected in some way to Austen to enlighten. Some words were places, some words were people. Some were things. But my favourite ones were probably the themes. Like F for friendship. I loved how Greany took that theme and analyzed it across Austen's different writings. It gave me a new appreciation of the stories, I have always loved.

Context: Austen and her writing has stood the test of time. She is still read and loved by readers around the world. But often it is easy to take her writing out of context. Out of her time. Out of the environment that she wrote in. Greany goes a long way to reintroduce that context.

Austen: As I said, I read a lot of Austen - and a lot of things related to Austen. Earlier this year I even went on an Austen vacation and visited her house in Chawton. But this was something I had never come across before. It was a completely new and fresh take on Austen and her writings that was both informative and entertaining.

If you love Jane Austen and have read most of her novels, this fast read is for you!

The author, Dr Michael Greaney is a senior lecturer at Lancaster University, whose research focuses on fiction since 1800. In this book, his passion shines and helps us dive into the Austen Universe. It’s filled with big themes and fun details, common throughout her books. It delights you with “Aha moments” and “Oh, I’ve noticed that too!” – at least it did for me, an avid reader of all Jane Austen’s novels.

The writing is clear, sometimes funny, but always filled with wonderful examples to illustrate the point the author is making. It shows a deep and thorough understanding of all Jane Austen’s works and it made me want to reread them all again!

I think this book helped me see a bigger picture and grasp a better understanding of the significance of some of the details in Austen’s novels.

Be warned – it is a literary commentary – so maybe not for everybody! If you enjoyed Jane Austen’s books just as a form of escapism and are not really interested in getting a deeper understanding of her work, this may not be for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, however, because it reminded me of everything I read and put everything in context. There are many things I realise now I hadn’t understood or noticed the first time I read her novels.

What “An A-Z of Jane Austen” Is About
This book starts a discussion around themes in Jane Austen’s work. It includes everything Jane Austen ever wrote (even letters). It tries to answer questions around her way of writing – Why are so few children present or what are the subtleties of the act of dancing in her novels?

One of the best parts is, of course, the way it was constructed. For each letter of the alphabet, Dr. Michael Greaney discusses an intriguing theme that spans throughout multiple or all of Jane Austen’s books:

A is for Accidents
B is for Bath
C is for Children
D is for Dance
E is for Eyes
F is for Friend
G is for Gift
H is for Horse
I is for Illness
J is for Jane
K is for Kindness
L is for Letters
M is for Matchmaking
N is for No
O is for Obstacle
P is for Poor
Q is for Queer
R is for Risk
S is for Servant
T is for Theatre
U is for Unexpected
V is for Visit
W is for West Indies
X is for Xis
Y is for Young
Z is for Zigzag
I recommend this small encyclopedia to all of Jane Austen’s lovers who want to deepen their understanding of her works and of the related Regency era customs!

Quotes from “An A-Z of Jane Austen” by Michael Greaney
If you are not convinced yet, here are some quotes from the book, just so you get a feel of it and see if you resonate with its writing:

When a woman falls in Austen there is usually a man on hand to catch – or nearly catch – her.

“AN A-Z OF JANE AUSTEN”, MICHAEL GREANEY
Mr. Dixon saves Jane Fairfax; Willowughby gathers up Marianne Dashwood; Wentworth lets Louisa slip through his fingers. All three fallers, whether or not they are physically intercepted, will eventually be “caught” by the wider structures of patriarchy.

“AN A-Z OF JANE AUSTEN”, MICHAEL GREANEY
As a rule, when Austen writes about Bath in these texts she writes against it. Repeatedly, the town is envisioned in her writings as a scene of intoxicatingly fatuous bustle, a place where newcomers are briefly dazzled by a brilliant mirage of social excitement that soon fades into something oppressively humdrum.

“AN A-Z OF JANE AUSTEN”, MICHAEL GREANEY
Children seem, on the face of it, to be second-class citizens in Austen’s narrative worlds. They are plentiful enough but they are not always carefully individuated; they can be noisy but they are not given much in the way of intelligible dialogue; they can be hyperactive but their doings are not shaped into storylines whose outcomes we are invested in;

“AN A-Z OF JANE AUSTEN”, MICHAEL GREANEY
Nowhere in Austen are relations of status, hierarchy and precedence more formally paraded and stringently enforced than on the dancefloor. Powerful unwritten rules govern who can and can’t be invited, who can address whom, who leads the dances and who dances with whom.

“AN A-Z OF JANE AUSTEN”, MICHAEL GREANEY
Do you want to read it?

(October 6th, 2022)

For Jane Austen fans, this is one of the best books one can read to discover the most intricate details about her life, her letters and her novels.

I took me a while to finish this book, but it was worth every second. I learned so much from it, from how the word 'eye' fits into Austen's narratives or even 'xis' was written as a riddle or something more. It truly taught me a lot about one of the best author's from the English literature and the smallest details from her books.

Interesting and informative, Michael Greaney really did an amazing job to show the world of Jane Austen in ways I never saw it. Also, the cover is absolutely amazing and I love every part of it.

Signing off,
B.

Enjoyable, if random (for me, the randomness was part of the charm), collection of short essays - some I enjoyed more than others, but that is the nature of a collection, I suppose. Not ideally suited for a very casual Austen fan, these pieces all came down more on the scholarly side of things.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

A lovely alphabetic way into gems from Jane Austin her life and her books, it introduces the reader into not only her well known books but also the lesser known ones. A great coffee table pick up and put down book.

An A-Z of Jane Austen is a collection of 26 short essays about Jane Austen's works based around a word starting with each letter of the alphabet. I enjoyed this book, but it definitely has more of an academic tone. Overall, I found this to be very informative.

*I received a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

Right off the bat, this book is *way* more scholarly than I originally thought it would be. I thought I knew what was getting myself into, but dang, that was intense.

I could definitely see this book being used as an university text or maybe even an Austen superfan.

I've read and enjoyed essays based on Jane Austen's work before, so I was hoping to find a lively, entertaining collection of thoughts in this book. Instead, it was a rather dry, scholarly work, probably more suited to research if you are hoping to write your own thesis on Jane Austen. But for a casual reader looking to be entertained, there's not much here that's relatable or fresh. It feels more like reading a dictionary or an encyclopedia.

I really enjoyed this book, super insightful without being overly highbrow.
Any true Jane Austin lover will find a great thrill in this book.

The book is set up alphabetically so each chapter is headed by a letter... "A is for Accident, B is for Bath, C is for Children etc and after each letter the author leads us into a short essay covering observations, opinions, facts and highlights on each lettered topic from Jane Austens most famous works.

🌼This book would be a wonderful addition to any Jane Austen fans library, a novelty gift for a fellow Janite or for someone studying Austen's work.

I did enjoy reading it as I'm a MAHOOSIVE Janite (especially the inclusion of The Watson's as I'm a bit obsessed with its unfinished-ness), its an ideal book to dip into every now and again....Im not sure how entertaining it would be for non Austen fans as it does read a little like study notes 🙈 ..an addition of illustrations would have been a bonus

This is an analysis about themes that one finds in Jane Austen's novels. From A is for Accident to ZigZag and how each of these ideas can be found in Austen's novels. I found the book interesting since it shows another way to look at all of Austen's stories, but I wondered as I read through the book if it was actually what she meant or was it that her perspective was specific to her time and her experience and had no other motive in writing her novels but to entertain.
I would think that if someone had actually found her letters stating that this is why she wrote the way she did then we can be this specific in her ideas but I think she was an woman in the 1700's that had limited opportunity in expressing her thoughts and writing was an outlet and she drew on the stories she heard from family and friends and used that for her novels, which by the way I love because its so true to human nature.

I want to thank Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for this interesting take on Jane Austen's writing.

This is a series of essays about Jane Austen's fiction using an A to A as a starting point, so we have A for accident, B is for Bath, and so on. They are pretty academic essays, so they are thought provoking, but no less very readable for that. This would be better read once familiar with Austen's main novels at least, but the author has read everthing,so his points are made using the letters, juvenalia and the unfinished novels as well as the novels. Both entertaining and informative.

*Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a review copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

I really enjoyed this and it was such a fun book too! The cover is so pretty! The idea of this book is really neat that it goes through the alphabet from A-Z about Jane Austen, where it talks about her and her life. Overall recommend! Especially if you want to learn more about Jane Austen.

**Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me this for my honest review.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Interesting book. Cute concept and if you are a Jane Austen fan then you just might want to take a look!