'Any new book on Jane Austen raises the urgent question, Would I get more pleasure from reading this than from re-reading my favourite Jane Austen novel? If you decide to give What Matters in Jane Austen? a chance you'll know after a few pages that you've made the right choice' John Carey, Sunday Times
'Almost as good as finding an unpublished novel' The Lady
Is there any sex in Jane Austen?
Why do her plots rely on blunders?
And which important characters never actually speak?
In twenty short chapters, each of which answers a question prompted by Jane Austen's novels, John Mullan illuminates the themes that matter most to the workings of Austen's fiction. Inspired by an enthusiastic reader's curiosity, based on a lifetime's study and written with flair and insight, What Matters in Jane Austen? uncovers the hidden truth about an extraordinary fictional world.
Autorentext
John Mullan is Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. He has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature, his books including The Artful Dickens (Bloomsbury, 2020). He has edited Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Emma for Oxford World's Classics. He is also a broadcaster and journalist, writing on contemporary fiction for the Guardian. He has taught Austen to university students for over three decades, and has lectured widely to lovers of her fiction in both the UK and the US.