From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars, a page-turning literary adventure that introduces readers to the women writers who inspired Jane Austenand investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.

Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austens books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.

But Austen wasnt a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writersand clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austens work. Every character in Northanger Abbey who isnt a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase pride and prejudice came from Frances Burneys second novel Cecilia. The women that populated Jane Austens bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadnt Romneydespite her trainingever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?

Jane Austens Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austens heroeswomen writers who were erased from the Western canonto reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworthand recounts Romneys experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austens. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austens bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austens Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.