Name of applicant: Austen, Jane

At times a charming candidate, but too coy to fit into our department of women's studies. A bit too pleased with herself, say the senior members of the committee, and clever but already outdated, think the younger ones, who tried to engage her, but received pithy witticisms rather than engaged debate. She displayed a queer aversion to critical terminology, and sketched the layout of the hotel conference room and lobby as she fielded our questions. Occasionally amusing, with a tact that may not help her to be valued as a serious scholar, she seemed uninformed by contemporary models. Her research on the paradigms of marriage and status among the landed gentry proved disappointing in person. When asked how she would integrate an understanding of alterity into her work, she remarked that it concerned other than her immediate interests."

More here.

J M Coetzee can be found eviewing at some length an anthology of poems about maths in an unusual place - Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

Rare Book Review web entry on 'Nabokov’s last song'

"After three decades locked in a Swiss vault, Vladimir Nabokov’s final novel, The Original of Laura, will be published for the first time - despite being the source of much anxiety and contention for Nabokov’s family and critics. Nabokov had completed the novel on 138 index cards; However, he died before he could translate his precise story onto paper. He left his wife Vera and son Dmitri with the difficult task of destroying the manuscript, but neither could bring themselves to do it. Dmitri eventually decided that The Original of Laura should be published, following the precedent set by Lolita as the classic only just survived incineration.

Dmitri Nabokov, the son of Vladimir said: "When the task passed to me, I did a great deal of thinking. I have said and written more than once that, to me, my parents, in a sense, had never died, but lived on, looking over my shoulder in a kind of virtual limbo, available to offer a thought or counsel in order to assist me with a vital decision, were it a crucial mot juste or some more mundane concern. I decided at this juncture, that, in putative retrospect, Nabokov would not have wanted me to allow a new "Juanita Dark" - for that was an early working title of "Lolita", destined for cremation - to burn like a latter-day Jeanne d'Arc."

Penguin is thrilled that after thirty years of deliberation, Dmitri Nabokov has finally agreed to let his father’s final novel be published. Alexis Kirschbaum, Editor for Penguin Classics said: “To make the most of this historic literary moment, Penguin Classics plans to republish Nabokov's entire backlist, as if for the first time, to introduce the public to novels, which they may not have heard of before. Lolita is only the beginning; from the humour of Pnin, to the satire on tyranny in Bend Sinister to the transcendent novel of first love in Mary; there already exists a Nabokov novel to be discovered for the first time."

Mein Kampf copy signed by Hitler sells for £21,000 according to the UK Guardian

"A rare signed copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf sold for £21,000 ($AUD41,436) at auction today. The infamous book was sold alongside a signed self-portrait, which fetched £12,300 at Mullock's auctions at Ludlow racecourse, Shropshire. Hitler gave the book to a fellow inmate, an early member of the Nazi party, at Landsberg prison following his failed attempt in 1923 to overthrow the German government, known as the beer hall putsch. The German inscription reads: "Herrn Johann Georg Maurer. In memory of our time together in prison in Landsberg. Cordially dedicated by Adolf Hitler. Christmas 1925."

The Ottawa Citizen notes a Project that looks at what people have been reading over 500 years

A massive project is currently underway in Britain, called the Reading Experience Database. "Thought up by Book History prof Simon Eliot and begun in 1996, the RED, as it is called, purports to chronicle the reading experience of some 25,000 people between the years 1450 and 1945. Included in these are well-known figures such as Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, to name but a few, as well as any and all that have somewhere had it documented what they were reading.

You can search the database by reader or author read. For instance, at some point between July 27, 1876 and August of that same year, Oscar Wilde was in Dublin at 1 Merrion Square North reading John Pentland Mahaffy's Rambles and Studies in Greece. OK, perhaps not the most exciting title, but Wilde wasn't reading it for pleasure, he was correcting the manuscript. Still, he was enjoying it: "Mahaffy's book of Travels in Greece will soon be out. I have been correcting his proofs and like it immensely." This quote is taken from a letter to William Ward which is collected in The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, edited by Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis.

On March 1, 1814, Jane Austen "finished the Heroine last night & was very much amused by it. I wonder James did not like it better. It diverted me exceedingly." The book in question was Eaton Stannard Barrett's The Heroine; or, Adventures of Cherubina and the proof of the reading comes from a letter from Austen to Cassandra Austen, included in Deirdre Le Faye's 1995 book Jane Austen's Letters.

"For the purposes of the project," Shafquat Towheed, one of the project's members, told me via e-mail, "we define a reading experience as a 'recorded engagement with a written or printed text beyond the mere fact of possession' -- which is a very broad definition. Of course, it's not possible to have a perfect record of a reading experience per se (the experience of reading is displaced in one sense, by the act of recording it), but I do think we have been extremely inclusive in the types of recorded responses of reading texts from c.1450 to 1945."

Hilary Mantel in the UK Guardian still uses cotton handkerchiefs when she cries

"'You are the only woman alive," claimed an irritated friend, "who still uses cotton handkerchiefs. Everybody else makes do with Kleenex." It's nice to be distinguished for something, even if only for the quantity of your laundry. I admit it, they all have to be washed and ironed and stacked in a box, and it's not a very 21st-century thing to be doing; if I wanted to be extra-provoking, I could dab them with lavender like a Victorian great-aunt. My excuse is this: I used to be a great weeper. And it's bad enough, in company, to be inexplicably lachrymose and blotchy, without strewing sodden tissues on the ground.

It was never personal setbacks that made me cry. It wasn't pain, or Hollywood weepies, or the misfortunes of my friends, or the television news, or cosmic despair; it was a view, a prospect, a picture in a museum, or some pinprick contact with the past - one of those moments when history dabs out a pointed fingertip and the nail sinks straight through your skin. I have cried in many art galleries, and aroused the suspicion of the curators. I once cried at Ullapool, because I was overwhelmed by the idea of "north". I cried the first time I visited Haworth, because I had suddenly glimpsed the narrow graveside nature of the Brontës' lives. I used to apologise and claim it was my hayfever, because it is terrible to be thought sensitive; people at once make plans to take advantage of you. And gradually, the friction of contact with the world thickened my skin and dried my eyes. I didn't cry much after I was 35, but staggered stony-faced into middle age, a handkerchief still in my bag just in case." More here.

Chec king prices of French books on the Net according to UK Bookkride blog

"In general it is best to stick to prices charged by French dealers, outside of France dealers tend to overrate these books and fail to understand condition standards and all the different states of the limited editions. Some have limitations as low as 2 or 3 copies, on vellum thick as Mother's Pride. Most book sites will not recognise signed books in French even if you tick the signed box so use words such as 'envoi' or 'envoi de l'auteur' in the keywords section.

Do not start booking holidays or ordering cars if you find a signed French book-- they are thick on the ground and values can be surprisingly low even with relatively major names. World class names such as Proust, Baudelaire, Rimbaud (mega), Lautreamont are cause for celebration if you come across books signed by them but you can occasionally find books signed by, say, Camus or Huysmans or Cocteau for low three figure sums. The ubiquity of signed literary books was once explained to me as being part of their salon system where writer and their readers enjoyed lively liaisons and literary intercourse...

The other thing to look for with French books, apart from colourful erotica and tomes with illustrations by modern masters such as Picasso, Rouault, Foujita, Man Ray or Braque, is exquisite bindings. Leather bindings that we might regard as very fine and elaborate are, by comparison with French efforts, ordinaire and at best worthy or merely competent. Left is a superb Bonet binding for Cirque an unpublished 1939 work by André Suares with illustrations by Ambroise Vollard. Livres d'Artistes in their elaborate boxes, chemises and slip-cases are another story to be dealt with at another time... The trouble with all this is that these books scream high values--they are very unlikely to show up undervalued. But not impossible. Never forget the wise and stirring words of Cadillac Jack --'anything can be anywhere.' Courage Fuyons! "

ANOTHER BOOKRIDE ENTRY FANTASISES ON FINDING OLD GOLLANCZ BOOKS

With " a fine/fine 'Rebecca' and a shelf full of Gollancz first editions all pristine in their yellow jackets. Orwell was there, Dorothy L Sayers, Gibson's 'Neuromancer', Larry Niven's 'Ringworld', Daphne's even more valuable book 'Jamaica Inn' ...a bunch of early Michael Innes, Visiak's 'Medusa', a 'Lucky Jim'', Charles Williams, Edmund Crispin, Kafka and the first two Le Carré's--with a few signatures and the odd loosely inserted autograph letter a 3 foot shelf of the top titles in fine condition would be knocking on a six figure sum in dollars and with luck even pounds sterling.

Near the top of the list is 'Call for the Dead' Le Carré's debut novel with Smiley as a sort of antiBond figure-- unstylish, plodding, cuckolded. This suspense novel was runner-up for the first prize in the British Crime Writers Association awards for 1961... Le Carré is now regarded as 'one of the half-dozen best novelists now working in English' (Scott Turow.) Interestingly the special spy language used in the books has apparently been adapted by MI5 itself where it was not used already - lamplighters, dead drops, moles, one time pads, pavement artists etc.,

VALUE? There are a lot about. A decent inscribed copy sold last month at Bloomsbury for £3300 + commission and can now be found listed at £9000. It has made more several times in auction without a signature - £8000 at Sotheby's in 2000 and £5900 (In repaired d/j with minor soiling, unsigned) in 2002. While there are a lot for sale at the moment no one is breaking ranks and the lowest price (a modest example but with a TLS loosely inserted) is £4500. A seller in South Africa (something of an epicentre for silly prices) wants £20000 for a very fresh example from his own collection. He also wants to see extra postage ('Courier Service only for this item.') Beware of dealers selling their own collections.

Another seller at a vertiginous £15K+ for an unrestored but not fine copy suggests that the book would make a very good long term investment. Possibly true if you bought last month's auction copy, but at this price you might wait until well beyond the 2024 Olympics just to get your money back. In fact when a bookseller suggests a book is an investment it is an almost infallible sign that it is not. The book market is notoriously hard to predict and an author who is sexy now may go flat before long. Patrick O'Brian has not gone ahead for several years, the R.D. Wingfield market has become flaccid, John Fowles tanked in the 1980s, Durrell is treading water and even Robert Graves is not the man he was etc.,

OUTLOOK? Le Carre's first two books are always going to be hard to find and a perfect copy could nudge into five figures especially when some optimism returns to the market. The yellow Gollancz jackets are thinnish and prone to wear. Auction records suggest that the book is in a gentle, possibly temporary, decline. His second book 'A Murder of Quality' is a better read and scarcer but not as valuable and may prove a better bet. The consensus is that he has not produced a great book since the 'Constant Gardener'; most of his books beyond the first three are very common (even signed.) Worth noting is the fact that the jacket of 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' remained exactly the same for about 10 printings-- this is sometimes turned to advantage by fiendish dealers who marry them with jacketless firsts or upgrade lesser copies. An almost undetectable ruse--as they say in Russia--'not caught, not a thief.' "

Harvard launches a menswear fashion line-whither ANU?

Something fishy seems to be going on at Harvard according to the New York Magazine: "The university is trying to be hip, possibly even chic. How else to explain Harvard's cameo on this week's episode of NYC Prep? And its new men's fashion line, Harvard Yard? And by fashion line, we don't mean maroon sweatshirts with crests on them. The university has inked a ten-year licensing deal with clothing manufacturer Wearwolf Group for a line of contemporary men's apparel. It's unclear if the line is part of the university's attempt to stop bleeding money. Harvard Yard - a lawn we imagine makes a nice resting ground for Harvard students to repair glasses, wipe down their pocket protectors, and memorize an extra few digits of pi - inspired the spring collection. The line includes "short-sleeve plaid shirts, Liberty print wovens, seersucker shorts, regimental stripes, sporty knits, patterned jackets and fancy pants - all in a contemporary, tapered fit," according to WWD.

The clothes won't be very Harvard-y in the literal sense. "Harvard" only appears on the labels inside the garments, while the university's signature crimson only appears in buttonholes, zipper pulls, and other trimmings. Prices range from $165 for pants to $495 for sport coats. The line's creative director, John Fowler, told WWD that designers drew from photos of students lounging in Harvard Yard in the sixties. “It’s a style that has become current again and not just with the American consumer. We think Harvard Yard will have global appeal.” So the fashion of Harvard could, one day, have the same reach as Gucci or Prada or ... the Gap."

Odd Book Title

Shag the Caribou. By Cecil Rutley. Macmillan. 1941.Libraries Australia report a holding only at Deakin University!