The Invention of Jane Harrison, Mary Beard
The Invention of Jane Harrison, Mary Beard
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The Invention of Jane Harrison

Author: Mary Beard

Narrator: Lucy Rayner

Unabridged: 6 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/14/2023


Synopsis

Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) is the most famous female Classicist in history, the author of books that revolutionized our understanding of Greek culture and religion. A star in the British academic world, she became the quintessential Cambridge woman—as Virginia Woolf suggested when, in A Room of One's Own, she claims to have glimpsed Harrison's ghost in the college gardens.

This lively and innovative portrayal of a fascinating woman raises the question of who wins (and how) in the competition for academic fame. Mary Beard captures Harrison's ability to create her own image. And she contrasts her story with that of Eugénie Sellers Strong, a younger contemporary and onetime intimate, the author of major work on Roman art, and once a glittering figure at the British School in Rome—but who lost the race for renown. The setting for the story of Harrison's career is Classical scholarship in this period—its internal arguments and allegiances and especially the influence of the anthropological strain most strikingly exemplified by Sir James Frazer. Questioning the common criteria for identifying intellectual "influence" and "movements," Beard exposes the mythology that is embedded in the history of Classics. At the same time she provides a vivid picture of a sparkling intellectual scene. The Invention of Jane Harrison offers shrewd history and undiluted fun.

About Mary Beard

Mary Beard is a professor of classics at Cambridge University and the author of the bestselling SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Women & Power: A Manifesto, and the National Book Critics Circle Award-nominated Confronting the Classics. A popular blogger and television personality, Beard is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lucienne on October 03, 2021

With wit, humour and forthrightness, Beard’s study of Jane Harrison’s posthumous reputation, especially as it contrasts with that of Harrison's friend and contemporary Eugenie Strong, is a fascinating study of the construction of the biographical and autobiographical subject. Along the way she discu......more

Goodreads review by Elisa on October 08, 2023

Looking for another Mary Beard book recommended by a friend,I discovered this, which I have in my real book library but had not gotten around to reading. Was thoroughly delighted by her archival explorations and judicious analysis of the construction of various biographical myths about Harrison.......more

Goodreads review by Helena on March 16, 2024

this was unfortunately not very friendly to someone who doesnt have an encyclopedic knowledge of jane harrison, so my main take-away is that all the main female classicists of that era were probably Gay For Each Other and Gay Together. and to that i say Good For Them......more

Goodreads review by Simon on August 03, 2014

When did putting out half an idea become not only acceptable scholarship but academically fashionable? Beard writes like an angel (if a little too self-consciously clever) and has some good ideas. But her research is only half-done and she never goes far beyond the criticism of other academics. What......more