I just learned most of Jane Austen's books were published without her name on them

I was reading a book about publishing history and found out that when 'Sense and Sensibility' first came out in 1811, it just said 'By a Lady'. 'Pride and Prejudice' in 1813 was 'By the Author of Sense and Sensibility'. Her real name wasn't on a book until after she died. I knew women authors used pen names back then, but I didn't know her books were totally anonymous for so long. It makes me think about how we talk about author identity in our club. Has your group ever read a book where the author's background changed how you saw the story?

4 comments

4 Comments

owens.laura8d ago

Wow, that's actually not that surprising for the time. A lot of women published anonymously then to avoid scandal. Honestly, in my club, we try to just focus on the text itself first. We read a book last year not knowing the author was in prison, and talking about that after we discussed the plot really changed things.

abby_fisher8d ago

Yeah, that's a smart way to do it, @owens.laura.

blair_torres708d ago

My old college lit professor did that with every book. We'd spend weeks on themes and symbols before he'd drop the author's wild backstory. It made you question what you really got from just the words on the page.

viola_garcia568d ago

Honestly, that sounds like a great way to ruin a book. If you need the author's jail time or messy divorce to make the story matter, maybe it wasn't that good to begin with. The words are what we all actually share, not the gossip.