{"title":"Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"jane-austen-and-the-price-of-happiness-book-inger-sigrun-bredkjr-brodey-9781421455464","title":"Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness","description":"Do Jane Austen novels truly celebrate—or undermine—romance and happy endings?  How did Jane Austen become a cultural icon for fairy-tale endings when her own books end in ways that are rushed, ironic, and reluctant to satisfy readers' thirst for romance? In Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness, Austen scholar Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey journeys through the iconic novelist's books in the first full-length study of Austen's endings. Through a careful exploration of Austen's own writings and those of the authors she read during her lifetime—as well as recent cultural reception and adaptations of her novels—Brodey examines the contradictions that surround this queen of romance.  Brodey argues that Austen's surprising choices in her endings are an essential aspect of the writer's own sense of the novel and its purpose. Austen's fiercely independent and deeply humanistic ideals led her to develop a style of ending all her own. Writing in a culture that set a monetary value on success in marriage and equated matrimony with happiness, Austen questions these cultural norms and makes her readers work for their comic conclusions, carefully anticipating and shaping her readers' emotional involvement in her novels.   Providing innovative and engaging readings of Austen's novels, Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness traces her development as an author and her convictions about authorship, novels, and the purpose of domestic fiction. In a review of modern film adaptions of Austen's work, the book also offers new interpretations while illustrating how contemporary ideas of marriage and happiness have shaped Austen's popular currency in the Anglophone world and beyond.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53077973074193,"sku":"NGR9781421455464","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781421455464.jpg?v=1769794159"},{"product_id":"a-z-guide-to-jane-austen-s-world-book-inger-sigrun-bredkjr-brodey-9781421455556","title":"An a-Z Guide to Jane Austen's World","description":"A beautifully illustrated guide to Jane Austen's fiction and life.  An A–Z Guide to Jane Austen's World offers an inviting, richly informed companion to one of literature's most enduring authors. Organized alphabetically and beautifully illustrated throughout, internationally recognized Austen scholar Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey introduces readers to twenty-six carefully chosen terms that illuminate the social customs, material culture, language, and historical forces shaping Jane Austen's fiction and life.  From Accomplishment and Baronetage to Tea, Uniform, and Zigzag, each entry pairs close attention to Austen's novels with historical context and rich biographical insight. Readers encounter familiar scenes and characters alongside surprising details: how money actually worked in the Regency period; why certain games mattered at evening gatherings; what carriage types revealed about character; and how letter writing, clothing, and landscape design carried political and social meaning. These seemingly small words and objects expand to draw a fuller picture of Austen's own place in an age of revolution.  Brodey balances scholarly authority with an accessible, lively voice that avoids romanticized clichés of the Regency era, instead presenting a nuanced picture of a society marked by inequality, rapid change, and global entanglements. The entries offer fresh perspectives that will surprise even longtime Austen readers. Harriet Wu's whimsical, elegant illustrations accompany each letter, enhancing the book's appeal as both a reference and a visually engaging object. Compact in size yet ambitious in scope, this gorgeous book brings Austen's world into clearer, more colorful focus.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53147263074577,"sku":"NGR9781421455556","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781421455556.jpg?v=1771704991"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-inger-sigrun-bredkjr-brodey.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}