The Forgotten Writers Who Influenced Jane Austen
In “Jane Austen’s Bookshelf,” a rare-book collector sets out to “investigate” a group of overlooked female writers.
By Sadie Stein
JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF:
A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
By Rebecca Romney
A longtime dealer in rare books who has made regular appearances on the TV show “Pawn Stars” and who knows her Richardson from her Fielding, Romney had come to believe that Austen was, if not unique among women writers of her time, certainly superior — that her place in the canon must rest at least partly on the relative inferiority of her peers. Then she read Frances Burney, and realized how many writers had not just influenced Austen — but been great in their own right. “In spite of my supposed professional curiosity, I realized I had missed something,” Romney writes. “And it stung.”
Romney acts. She amasses the titular collection while using her knowledge of book selling to explore exactly how all these women fell from the canon.
Sleuthing ensues.
The project takes chutzpah, and Romney has it. “Literary trivia is my joy and my currency,” she tells the reader.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/books/review/jane-austens-bookshelf-rebecca-romney.html