The Latest from Devoney (and Sister Novelists)
New Year's Day, 2023
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I hope today finds you feeling renewed and relaxed, whether or not you like to make resolutions. The quotation I chose on January 1st for The Daily Jane Austen: A Year of Quotes is from Northanger Abbey, and I do like to reread it on this reflection-filled day: “If adventures will not befal a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.” Surely a wise requirement at any age!
Did you happen to overdo it last night? Let me recommend a terrific book by a friend, Jonathon Shears: The Hangover: A Literary and Cultural History, the first comprehensive book on the subject. My favorite section is on the eighteenth-century “gin craze,” which taught me that gin was also known as the “cuckold’s comfort,” the “ladies delight” and the “mother’s ruin.” For the record, I’m not hungover today. I spent New Year’s Eve watching White Lotus with our college-age son. Highly recommend. (Now to get him to watch Jennifer Coolidge in Austenland.)
A YEAR IN REVIEW: SISTER NOVELISTS AND BEYOND
Thank you so much for cheering me on as I brought this book to the finish line in 2022. If you haven’t had the chance to read (or listen to) Sister Novelists yet, I do hope you’ll consider making it your next read. Several of you have send me notes to let me know about the parts of Sister Novelists that made you laugh out loud—or, more often, where you cried! Two more excerpts were recently published, in Huntington Frontiers (“Two Sisters of Blazing Genius”) and Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities (“Before the Brontës, There Were the Porters”), if you’d like another chance to preview the book, with some gorgeous images.
I recently had the pleasure, too, of writing an essay for The Washington Post’s Book World, “To Find Great Female Novelists, Stop Looking in Jane Austen’s Shadow.” I mentioned Jane Porter briefly there, but I hope the piece reminds us that there are other ways to seek and recognize lost writers or under-appreciated literary greatness. I also got to contribute a chapter to a terrific new book, Jane Austen, Sex, and Romance: Engaging with Desire in the Novels and Beyond, thanks to fab co-editors Nora Nachumi and Stephanie Oppenheim. Go ahead and judge this book by its fantastic cover.
It was a year of reconnecting, too. I feel fortunate to have met some of you at in-person events in Arizona, Missouri, and Oklahoma, as well as through video lectures and radio interviews, from North Carolina’s Jane Austen & Co. series, to the Rosenbach Museum’s Austen Mondays, to Radio New Zealand. I also had the pleasure of joining some amazing podcasts to talk Sister Novelists, including The Austen Connection and History Hack. And there’s more to come . . .
SEE YOU SOON?
Maybe we’ll be so lucky as to see each other in person or online again in the coming months? This week I’ll be at the Modern Language Association in San Francisco, hanging out with scholar-teacher-professor colleagues. Although I will not be there with bells on, I will be handing out book swag in the form of Sister Novelists koozies. Cheers!
I’ve got three events I’m very excited about coming up after that:
On Tues., Jan. 31st, I’ll be doing an online event (ticketed) with the New York Society Library at 6 p.m. ET.
On Thurs., Feb 16th, I’ll be in person in Minneapolis / St. Paul at Magers and Quinn Bookstore at 7 p.m. CT.
On Tues., March 28th, join me for an in-person event at the New York Public Library. Details to follow.
I so look forward to talking Sister Novelists, Jane Austen, and the history of women’s writing with you in 2023. And once again, thanks for the shared adventures in 2022. I look forward to hearing from you about what’s happening in your village and beyond.
Your humble and obedient servant,
Devoney
P. S. MIGHT YOU HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT Sister Novelists?
Sister Novelists has an online reader’s guide for book groups.
The book is also available on Audible and in audiobook format.
Add it to your Want to Read on Goodreads, then return later to review it.
Rate or review it on Amazon or BookBub. (Reviews help get the book into more hands, so I truly appreciate those who write them!)
Forward this newsletter to a friend.
UPCOMING EVENTS WITH DEVONEY: SISTER NOVELISTS BOOK TOUR
VIRTUAL: New York Society Library Virtual Event (ticketed) (Tues., Jan. 31st, 6 p.m. ET).
IN PERSON: Minneapolis, MN: Magers & Quinn (free) (Thurs., Feb. 16th, 7 p.m. CT).
IN PERSON: New York Public Library (free) (Tues., March 28th) (Details TBA).