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Title: Letters to Alice

Subtitle: On First Reading Jane Austen

Author: Fay Weldon

Narrator: Lesley Parkin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-17-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Inspired by a series of instructive letters written by Austen to a novel-writing niece, Letters to Alice is an epistolary novel in which an important modern writer responds to her niece's complaint that Jane Austen is boring and irrelevant. By turns passionate and ironic, "Aunt Fay" makes Alice think - not only about books and literature, but also life and culture.

Critic Reviews:

"Wise, sharp, informative.... Shrewd and funny." (A. S. Byatt, Times Literary Supplement)

"A study of a writer (and reader) thinking aloud about art and civilization.... It should be required reading, a prerequisite for students of literature." (Hilma Wolitzer, New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Like having another sharp, witty aunt.

I have seven aunts. Like my mum, they are all witty and loving. "Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen" made me feel like I have a new dear aunt, brilliant and a bit odd, who will tell me the straight skinny. I know she's looking out for me. Lucky Alice (she doesn't know how lucky she is).

as much about literature as Austen, and a great read

Written in the form of witty letters to a niece taking an undergraduate English Lit course, this book attempts to bring insight to the work of Jane Austen in particular and to answer those who question the relevance of literature in general. First published in 1984, there is no mention of deconstruction's effect on academic departments, but otherwise the author seems to address most issues pertinent to the reading and writing of fiction, beginning with a wonderful chapter on the lovely metaphoric City of Invention. Elsewhere, Weldon discusses non-literature, Latin, a writer's relatives and friends, feminism, literary truth, critics and invention. Austen is here as well,and the author enlightens with her discussions of Austen's life, times, works, style and death. There are many wonderful passages, and I especially admired the analyses of Austen's work, but I would have liked more of this, and in more detail. At one point the author writes: "[Jane Austen] knows how to end a scene, an episode, a chapter, before beginning the next: when to allow the audience to rest, when to and how to underline a statement, when to mark time with idle paragraphs, allowing what went before to settle, before requiring it to inform what comes next. It is a very modern technique. It requires ... consciousness of audience, and audience reaction." It should be evident from that passage that Weldon is an elegant, insightful and articulate writer, and I would have *loved* to have seen extended examples and analysis of specific Austen passages to illustrate the points made in the preceding excerpt.

Ultimately, I didn't think the niece's subplot worked. Weldon first advises her not to attempt to write a novel, and then advises her to write it, and then advises her about dealing with the publisher when the novel is not only published but very successful. What's Weldon's greater meaning? Why would this undergrad's novel be published and who is reading it? Is it a condemnation or just a device to drive the conceit?

I learned a lot about Jane Austen and about writing, and got some help for the next time someone tells me it's a waste of time to read a novel.