Jane Austen image
Public domain image of Jane Austen, from a drawing by her sister Cassandra

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

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Biographical Studies

Grey, J. David. Henry Austen: Jane Austen's "Perpetual Sunshine." Persuasions Occasional Papers #1, 1984

Ketcham, Carl H. "The Still Unknown Lover." Persuasions #11, 1989

Leigh, Joan Austen. My Aunt, Jane Austen. Persuasions #11, 1989

McDonald, Irene B. "The Chawton Years (1809-1817) -'Only' Novels." Persuasions On-Line, V.22, No.1, Winter 2001

Nicolson, Nigel. "Jane Austen in Bath." On Jane Austen's feelings about her time in Bath, in The Spectator, Dec 13-Dec 20, 2003

Nokes, Edward. The first chapter of Edward Nokes' Jane Austen: A Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997)

Parsons, Farnell. "A Note on a Jane Austen Connection with the Massachusetts Historical Society: Justice Story, Admiral Wormeley, and Admiral Francis Austen." Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

Tomalin, Claire. The first chapter of Claire Tomalin's Jane Austen: a life (Viking, 1997)

Walker, Linda Robinson. "Why was Jane Austen sent away to school at seven? An empirical look at a vexing question." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Austen's Novels & Themes

Auerbach, Emily. "'A barkeeper entering the kingdom of heaven': Did Mark Twain really hate Jane Austen?" Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 1999 (taken offline)

Ascarelli, Miriam. "A Feminist Connection: Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Bray, Joe. The source of "dramatized consciousness": Richardson, Austen, and stylistic influence [novelist Samuel Richardson]. Style, Spring, 2001

Butler, Marilyn and Irvin Ehrenpreis. Jane Austen's Politics. A brief but pointed exchange on whether Jane Austen wrote politically conservative novels. NY Review of Books, 4/5/79

Clark, Robert. A substantial introduction to Jane Austen from the Literary Encyclopedia. On Emma; On Persuasion

Cohen, Paula Marantz. "Jane Austen's rejection of Rousseau: A novelistic and feminist initiation." Papers on Language and Literature, Summer 1994

DeForest, Mary and Eric Johnson. "Computing Latinate Word Usage in Jane Austen's Novels." A description of a computer-aided study developed to identify the use of Latinate language by characters in Jane Austen. Computers and Text, Spring 2000

Emsley, Sarah. "Laughing at Our Neighbors: Jane Austen and the Problem of Charity." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Enhoffer, Tina. "Chances Are: The Role of Fortune in Jane Austen's Novels." Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Graham, Jean. "Austen and the Advantage of Height." Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Graham, Peter W. "Born to Diverge: An Evolutionary Perspective on Sibling Personality Development in Austen's Novels. Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Graves, David Andrew. Vocabulary Profiles of Letters and Novels of Jane Austen and her Contemporaries. Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Griffin, Michael. "Jane Austen and Religion: Salvation and Society in Georgian Society." Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

Hansen, Serana. "Rhetorical Dynamics in Jane Austen's Treatment of Marriage Proposals." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.2, Summer 2000

Hinnant, Charles H. "Jane Austen's 'wild imagination': romance and the courtship plot in the six canonical novels." Narrative, 01-OCT-06

Khaleque, M. Abdul. "Jane Austen's Idea of a Home." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Lenckos, Elisabeth. "Inventing elegant letters, or, why don't Austen's lovers write more often?" Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Litvak, Joseph. Caught in the Act: Theatricality in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel (Univ. of California Press, 1992). A complete, book-length critical study. Litvak contends that private experience in Austen "is a rigorous enactment of a public script that constructs normative gender and class identities." California Digital Library

May, Leila S. "Jane Austen's 'schemes of sisterly happiness.'" Philological Quarterly, 22-JUN-02

McCawley, Dwight. "Assertion and Aggression in the Novels of Jane Austen." McCawley makes use of the distinction between assertion and aggression from popular books on "assertiveness training" to discuss Austen's characters. Persuasions #11, 1989

McGuinness, Frank. "Jane Austen in Ireland, 1845." Irish University Review: a journal of Irish Studies, 22-SEP-07

McMaster, Juliet and Victoria Kortes-Papp. "Teaching Austen By Editing: From the Juvenilia To Emma." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.1, Winter 2000

Michie, Elsie B. "Austen's powers: "Engaging with Adam Smith in debates about wealth and virtue" [Economist Adam Smith]. Novel, Fall 2000

Miller, Christopher R. "Jane Austen's aesthetics and ethics of surprise." Narrative, 01-OCT-05

Moody, Ellen. "Jane Austen and Time: a study of her use of the almanac." A collection of writings on Jane Austen posted by professor Moody, which includes her article "A Calendar For Sense and Sensibility," from Philological Quarterly, 79 (Fall 2000), and another detailed study of the calendars in all Austen's novels. Also Jane Austen on Film for Professor Moody's discussion of film versions of Austen's novels.

Morgan, Susan. "Adoring the Girl Next Door: Geography in Austen." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.1, Winter 2000

Morini, Massimiliano. "Who evaluates whom and what in Jane Austen's novels?" Style, 22-DEC-07

Nelles, William. "Omniscience for atheists: or, Jane Austen's infallible narrator." On the comparison of the narrator to God. Narrative, 01-MAY-06

Nixon, Cheryl L. and Louise Penner. "Writing by the Book: Jane Austen's Heroines and the Art and Form of the Letter." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Parker, Keiko. "Illustrating Jane Austen." Persuasions On-Line

Powley, Tammy. "The Creation of Rhetorical Conversation." Persuasions On-Line, V.24, No.1, Winter 2003

Pritchard, W. H. "What's Been Happening to Jane Austen?" Hudson Review, Summer 2004

Rohrbach, Emily. "Austen's later subjects." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 22-SEP-04

Rowlinson, Hugh. "The Contribution of Count Rumford to Domestic Life in Jane Austen's Time." Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

Thompson, Allison. "The Felicities of Rapid Motion: Jane Austen in the Ballroom." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.1, Winter 2000

White, Laura Mooneyham. Beyond the Romantic Gypsy: Narrative Disruptions and Ironies in Austen's Emma Papers on Language and Literature, Summer 2008

Wiesenfarth, Joseph. "Jane Austen's Family of Fiction: From Henry and Eliza to Darcy and Eliza." Persuasions On-Line, V.22, No.1, Winter 2001

Woods, Karen. On the meaning of social dancing in Pride and Prejudice and Emma. "'It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged': Dance and the Truth in Two Novels by Jane Austen." The Austen Quarterly, Vol. 3 no.1 (Spring 1999)

Zunshine, Lisa. "Why Jane Austen was different, and why we may need cognitive science to see it." Style, 22-SEP-07

Emma (1815)

Anderson, Kathleen. "Fathers and Lovers: The Gender Dynamics of Relational Influence in Emma." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.2, Summer 2000

Bader, Ted. "Mr. Woodhouse is not a Hypochondriac!" Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.2, Summer 2000

Caplan, Clive. "The Source for Emma's William Larkins." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.2, Summer 2000

Craig, Sheryl Bonar. "The Value of a Good Income: Money in Emma." Persuasions On-Line, V.22, No.1, Winter 2001

Duckworth, W. "Reading Emma: Comic Irony, the Follies of Janeites, and Hermeneutic Mastery." Persuasions On-Line, V.24, No.1, Winter 2003

Gamer, Michael. "Unanswerable Gallantry and Thick-Headed Nonsense." Gamer writes, "part of my aim is simply to show its complexity of signification, particularly the degree to which Austen frustrates even the most fundamental acts of interpretation and upsets rudimentary correspondences between signifiers and apparent signifieds." Re-reading Box Hill: reading the practice of reading everyday life, ed. by W. Galperin. Romantic Circles, 2001

Jackson, Karin. "The Dilemma of Emma: Moral, Ethical, and Spiritual Values." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.2, Summer 2000

Juhasz, Suzanne. "Reading Austen Writing Emma." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.1, Winter 2000

Kramp, Michael. "The woman, the woman, the gypsies, and England: "Harriet Smith's national role." [Jane Austen's Emma College Literature, 01-JAN-04

Kuwahara, Kuldip Kaur. "Jane Austen's Emma and Empire: A Postcolonial View." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Lee, Marti D. "Aristos or Aristocracy? Alliances in Emma." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Levine, George. "Box Hill and the Limits of Realism," "Perhaps the most difficult thing for a modern reader of Emma to do is to take it straight, to accept Mr. Knightley as the moral authority the story seems to make him." Re-reading Box Hill: reading the practice of reading everyday life, ed. by W. Galperin. Romantic Circles, 2001

Lynch, Deidre. "Social Theory at Box Hill: Acts of Union." On the Box Hill episode in Emma, sees the scene as an acting out of several contradictory imperatives of nationhood and British identity. Re-reading Box Hill: reading the practice of reading everyday life, ed. by W. Galperin. Romantic Circles, 2001

Mills, Jane. "Clueless: transforming Jane Austen's Emma." Australian Screen Education, Spring, 2004 (taken offline)

Morris. Ivor. "The Enigma of Harriet Smith." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Morse, Joann Ryan. "The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth: Shakespearian Comedy in Emma." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Parrill, Sue. "Metaphors of Control: Physicality in Emma and Clueless." Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Potkey, Adam. "Leaving Box Hill: Emma and Theatricality." Potkey traces Austen's stated preferences for Cowper and Johnson in pursuing issues of theatricality and display, to an ultimately deconstructive result. Re-reading Box Hill: reading the practice of reading everyday life, ed. by W. Galperin. Romantic Circles, 2001

Rogers, Susan. "Emma at Box Hill: A Very Questionable Day of Pleasure." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Walling, W. "Saying What One Thinks: Emma at Box Hill." Walling considers the problem of anachronism, especially as it relates to views that either praise Austen's progressivism or bemoan her cultural limitations. Re-reading Box Hill: reading the practice of reading everyday life, ed. by W. Galperin. Romantic Circles, 2001

Wolfson, Susan J. "Boxing Emma; or the Reader's Dilemma at the Box Hill Games." A close reading of the Box Hill episode and its ramification in Emma, which demonstrates how the character of Miss Bates is essential to a shifting idea of community in the novel. Re-reading Box Hill: reading the practice of reading everyday life, ed. by W. Galperin. Romantic Circles, 2001

Mansfield Park (1814)

Aragay, Mireia. "Possessing Jane Austen: Fidelity, authorship, and Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park (1999)," On the film version of Mansfield Park. Literature/Film Quarterly, 2003

Burns, Melissa. "Jane Austen's Mansfield Park: Determining Authorial Intention." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Capitani, Diane. "Moral Neutrality in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park." Provides economic and political details about slavery in the West Indies, as context for Sir Thomas Bertram's Antigua plantation. Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

Davis, Gregson. "Jane Austen's Mansfield Park: the Antigua Connection." Provides historical, biographical and socio-economic contexts, illuminating the references to Antigua in Mansfield Park, includes historic map. From Antigua and Barbuda Country Conference, November 13-15, 2003

Despotopoulou, Anna. "Fanny's gaze and the construction of feminine space in Mansfield Park." The Modern Language Review, 01-JUL-04

Edmundson, Melissa. "A Space for Fanny: The Significance of Her Rooms in Mansfield Park." Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

Ellwood, Gracia Fay. "'Such a Dead Silence:' Cultural Evil, Challenge, Deliberate Evil, and Metanoia in Mansfield Park." Persuasions On-Line, V.24, No.1, Winter 2003

Groenendyk, Kathi. "Modernizing Mansfield Park: Patricia Rozema's Spin on Jane Austen." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Kondelik, Marlene. "From Mary Crawford to Kate Croy and Back Again: One Reader's Response to Mansfield Park." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.1, Winter 2000

Koppel, Gene. "Mansfield Park and Morgan's Passing: Jane Austen's and Anne Tyler's Problem Novels." Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Muse, Sarah J. "The View and Patronage of Mansfield Park." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Palmer, Sally B. "Slipping the Leash: Lady Bertram's Lapdog." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Perkins, Moreland. "Mansfield Park and Austen's Reading on Slavery and Imperial Warfare." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Sheehan, Colleen A. "To Govern the Winds: Dangerous Acquaintances at Mansfield Park." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Sutherland, John. "Edward Said's useful errors," includes a discussion of Said's charges that Mansfield Park rests on imperialism, in Times Literary Supplement, 16 March 2005 (taken offline)

Northanger Abbey (pub. 1818)

Benedict, Barbara. "Reading by the Book in Northanger Abbey." Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Cummins, Nichola. "Northanger Abbey: Catherine Morland and the Vice of the 'Sympathetic Imagination.'" On the importance of candor. Deep South, v.1 n.1 (February, 1995)

Gilbert, Deirdre E. "'Willy-Nilly' and Other Tales of Male-Tails: Rightful and Wrongful Laws of Landed Property in Northanger Abbey and Beyond." Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Rogers, Henry N. "Of Course You Can Trust Me!": Jane Austen's Narrator in Northanger Abbey. Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Schaub, Melissa. "Irony and Political Education in Northanger Abbey." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.1, Winter 2000

Wiesenfarth, Joseph. "The Invention of Civility in Northanger Abbey." Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Persuasion (1818)

Cohen, Monica F. "Persuading the Navy home: Austen and married women's professional property." Cohen contends that "Persuasion, by telling the story of how the navy is domesticated in the post-Napoleonic years, also tells the story of how domesticity is professionalized." Novel, Spring 1996

Gottlieb, Sidney. "Persuasion and cinematic approaches to Jane Austen." Literature/Film Quarterly, 2002

Green, Sarah K. "'A state of alteration, perhaps of improvement': New Social Structures in Persuasion." A prize-winning undergraduate essay, 2003, at Persuasions On-Line

Jones, Susan E. "Thread-cases, Pin-cushions, and Card-racks: Women's Work in the City in Jane Austen's Persuasion." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Kaplan, Laurie. "Sir Walter Elliot's Looking-Glasses, Mary Musgrove's Sofa, and Anne Elliot's Chair: Exteriority/Interiority, Intimacy/Society." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Macomber, Lenore. "A New View of Jane Austen's Persuasion." Persuasions On-Line, V.24, No.1, Winter 2003

Morris, Ivor. "Persuasion's Unwritten Story." Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

Wootton, Sarah. "The Byronic in Jane Austen's Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice." [poet Lord Byron] The Modern Language Review, 01-JAN-07

Yee, Nancy. "Friendship in Persuasion: The Equality Factor." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.2, Summer 2000

Young, Kay. "Feeling embodied: consciousness, Persuasion, and Jane Austen." Narrative, 01-JAN-03

Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Benson, Mary Margaret. "Mothers, Substitute Mothers, and Daughters in the Novels of Jane Austen." Persuasions #11, 1989

Bonaparte, Felicia. "Conjecturing possibilities: reading and misreading texts in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice." Studies in the Novel. 22-JUN-05

Casal, Elvira. "Laughing at Mr. Darcy: Wit and Sexuality in Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions On-Line, V.22, No.1, Winter 2001

Ellwood, Gracia Fay. "How Not To Father: Mr. Bennet and Mary." Persuasions On-Line, V.22, No.1, Winter 2001

Glancy, Kathleen. "What Happened Next? or The Many Husbands of Georgiana Darcy." Persuasions #11, 1989

Gross, Gloria. "Samuel Johnson's influence on Jane Austen." "Mentoring Jane Austen: Reflections on 'My Dear Dr. Johnson,'" in Persuasions #11, 1989

Halperin, John. "Inside Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions #11, 1989

Hudson, Glenda A. "Sibling Love in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions #11, 1989

Kaplan, Laurie. "The Two Gentlemen of Derbyshire: Nature vs. Nurture." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Knuth, Deborah J. "Sisterhood and Friendship in Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions #11, 1989

Koppel, Gene. "Pride and Prejudice: Conservative or Liberal Novel - Or Both?" Persuasions #11, 1989

Margalit, Efrat. "On Pettiness and Petticoats: The Significance of the Petticoat in Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

McAleer, John. "The Comedy of Social Distinctions in Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions #11, 1989

Millard, Mary. "Pride and Prejudice Quiz." in Persuasions #11, 1989

Morris, Ivor. "Elizabeth and Mr. Bennet." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Moses, Carole. "Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Collins, and the Art of Misreading." Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

Redmond, Luanne Bethke. "Land, Law and Love." On entailment and property law in Pride and Prejudice. Persuasions #11, 1989

Rytting, Jenny Rebecca. "Jane Austen Meets Carl Jung: Pride, Prejudice, and Personality Theory." Persuasions On-Line, V.22, No.1, Winter 2001

Salber, Cecilia. "'Excuse my interference': Meddling in Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.2, Summer 2000

Salber, Cecilia. "Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy: Art Imitating Art . . . Imitating Art." Persuasions On-Line, V.22, No.1, Winter 2001

Sherrod, Barbara. "Pride and Prejudice: A Classic Love Story." Persuasions #11, 1989

Stasio, Michael J. and Duncan, Kathryn. "An evolutionary approach to Jane Austen: prehistoric preferences in Pride and Prejudice." Studies in the Novel, 22-JUN-07

Stoval, Bruce. Secrets, Silence, and Surprise in Pride and Prejudice." in Persuasions #11, 1989

Turan, Kenneth."Pride and Prejudice: An Informal History of the Motion Picture." On the 1940 movie version with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. Also Interview with the actresses. Persuasions #11, 1989

Wiesenfarth, Joseph. A comparison of two novels illuminates Austen's approach to the novel of manners. "Violet Hunt Rewrites Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Their Lives (1916)." Persuasions #11, 1989

Wilson, Jennifer Preston. "'One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it': The Development of Darcy in Pride and Prejudice." Notes Wilson, "The experience of reading Pride and Prejudice can become one of verisimilitude, a movement toward recognition of Darcy as a good man and abandonment of prejudice against him on the part of the reader that mirrors Elizabeth's own awakening. However, Austen does offer subtle signals of Darcy's development throughout her novel." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Wingard, Sara. "Reversal and Revelation: The Five Seasons in Pride and Prejudice." How Austen's use of the seasonal cycle as narrative framework links her to both the eighteenth century and the Romantic period. Persuasions #11, 1989

Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Chapman, Geoff. "Colonel Brandon: an Officer and a Gentleman in Sense and Sensibility." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.1, Winter 2000

Dinkler, Michal Beth. "Speaking of Silence: Speech and Silence as a Subversive Means of Power in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility." Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Goldman, Rene. "Jane Austen in Vienna: Some Reflections on a Curious Socio-Historical Application of Her Two Illustrious Antinomies." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.1, Winter 2000

Lerman, Rachel. "The Sense and Sensibility of Jane Austen." Persuasions On-Line, V.21, No.2, Summer 2000

Ray, Joan Klingel. "'The Amiable Prejudices of a Young [Writer's] Mind': The Problems of Sense and Sensibility." Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Shubinsky, Diane. "Sense and Sensibility: An Eighteenth-Century Narrative." Persuasions On-Line, V.20, No.1, Summer 1999

Lady Susan

Ford, Susan Allen. "'No business with politics': Writing the Sentimental Heroine in Desmond and Lady Susan" [Charlotte Smith’s epistolary novel]. Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Soya, Michiko. Lady Susan: A Game of Capturing the Last Word from Lady Susan to Jane Austen, and Then ... Persuasions On-Line, V.24, No.1, Winter 2003

Scholarly Journals and Texts

Persuasions, the Journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America, published its first full-text online edition, Vol 20, in Summer 1999 and now has the issues through 2005 online, as a public service. Indexed in literaryhistory.com through Vol. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

The Jane Austen Quarterly, Spring 1999 edition, published by the American Society of Jane Austen Scholars. Also archived copies, 1996-1998

Web site for Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature: A scholarly journal devoted to the study of women's literature of all periods and nationalities [Feminist and Women's Studies]

Web site for Women's Writing, an international scholarly journal focusing on women's writing up to the end of the long nineteenth century. A sample copy is available for viewing, requires registration

Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Feminist Bibliography, from Misty G. Anderson, Univ. of Tennessee

Jane Austen Works and Studies 2004 Barry Roth. Persuasions On-Line, V. 26, No. 1, Winter 2005

Jane Austen Works and Studies 2003 by Barry Roth. Persuasions On-Line, Volume 25, No. 1, Winter 2004

Jane Austen Works and Studies 2002 Barry Roth. Persuasions On-Line, V.24, No.1, Winter 2003

Jane Austen Works and Studies 2001 Barry Roth. Persuasions On-Line, V.23, No.1, Winter 2002

Jane Austen Works and Studies 1999 Barry Roth. Persuasions On-Line, V.22, No.1, Winter 2001

A list of recent scholarly articles on Austen taken from the 1999 MLA bibliography

An annotated bibliography of Jane Austen sources at the Newberry Library in Chicago

Introduction

About the problem of liking the wimpy heroine Fanny Price in Mansfield Park, by Carol Shields

Transcript of a PBS News Hour discussion on Jane Austen's books and films, with Elizabeth Farnsworth, Carol Shields, Cynthia Heimel, and Roger Rosenblatt

"The Jane Austen thing" asks, "What is the appeal of these highly mannered and moralistic tales of rigidly choreographed courtship and marriage rituals to a generation of young women brought up to assume they could 'have it all'" The Progressive, July, 1996 by Elaine Rapping

"Jane Austen wins more fans than Zadie Smith.""Despite the huge commercial success of modern authors such as J K Rowling, Zadie Smith and Helen Fielding, Austen's bittersweet social comedy Pride and Prejudice - written in 1813 - topped a survey of the greatest women writers yesterday." In the Independent (London), May, 2003 by Athalie Matthews

The Pride of Austen Critics: a Prejudice? An essay on how academic literary critics are responding to Jane Austen's popularity, which extends from high to popular culture. By Deborah Kaplan in Chronicle of Higher Education, 3/11/05

Article compares the fiction and film versions of Austen heroines in Australian Humanities Review

"Jane Austen's Two Inches of Ivory," by Tad Mosel, from a talk at the National Arts Club in 1980, published in Persuasions Occasional Papers #1, 1984

Brief introductory articles (older criticism) of Jane Austen's works, from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907-21). On Northanger Abbey On Pride and Prejudice On Sense and Sensibility, On Mansfield Park , On Emma, On Persuasion

Jane Austen section of "Women in the Literary Marketplace," an online exhibit from the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell Univ. that contains short entries on several Victorian women authors and their typical themes, information about the publishing context, and some images of first editions

A site from the Hampshire, England, County Council on Jane Austen's biography, homes, locations, and substantial discussions of the films of Jane Austen's novels

Erotic literature. A humorous first person essay, in which the writer contends that the novels of Jane Austen and Emily Bronte are more genuinely erotic than those of D.H. Lawrence. New Statesman, Dec 4, 1998 by Rowan Pelling (taken offline)

On Jane Austen's novels as money-makers for publishers. "Cents and Sensibility: The surprising truth about sales of classic novels." By Adelle Waldman, Slate Magazine, April 2, 2003 (taken offline)

"When Jane Austen describes meals, they are never innocent events" New Statesman, July 21, 2003 by Michele Roberts (taken offline)

Reviews of Scholarship on Jane Austen

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