Jane Austen

In Jane Austen and Representations of Regency England, Roger Sales looks at Jane Austen's entire oeuve, and views her historically as a Regency writer voicing concerns on the condition of England. Examining Austen's literary works; her letters - in the context of those of other Regency women, the reconstructs the breadth of Jane Austen's writing. the book also examines Austen's representations of dandyism and masculine identities, the events of the Regency crisis of 1810-12, the way in which Austen engaged in topical debates such as healthcare in both Emma and Persuasion.

Jane Austen's universe is so focused on interiority, on the subjectivities of her characters, that it promises little for the sociologist. In this original piece of work on the Austen novels, Christopher Wilkes examines the social nature of Austen's contribution, using Bourdieu's theory of social practice. In an investigation that spans the social worlds of landscape, economics, culinary practice and fashion, Wilkes argues that Austen was an exemplary social analyst, uniquely able to reveal the complex social hierarchies of her time.

It is a familiar story line in nineteenth-century English novels: a hero must choose between money and love, between the wealthy, materialistic, status-conscious woman who could enhance his social position and the poorer, altruistic, independent-minded woman whom he loves. Elsie B. Michie explains what this common marriage plot reveals about changing reactions to money in British culture.

In Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity, Janine Barchas makes the bold assertion that Jane Austen's novels allude to actual high-profile politicians and contemporary celebrities as well as to famous historical figures and landed estates. Barchas is the first scholar to conduct extensive research into the names and locations in Austen's fiction by taking full advantage of the explosion of archival materials now available online.

A classic account of Jane Austen in the context of eighteenth-century ideas and the current of contemporary thought. Margaret Kirkham shows that Jane Austen's views on the status of women, female education, marriage, the family and the representation of women in literature were remarkably similar to thsoe of feminists in her own day. Margaret Kirkham was formerly a lecturer at Bristol Polytechnic.

First published in 1939, this remains a classic study of Jane Austen's genius in the art of fiction. The opening section, "Biography," provides an account of Jane Austen's life and development as a writer, from her earliest childhood pieces to the final, unfinished novel, "Sanditon," begun early in 1817, a few months before her death.

This study examines Jane Austen´s representation of morality and conduct in her two novels ‘Mansfield Park'(1814) and ‘Persuasion'(1818) by the use of the conduct books read and used by the people of the Victorian time.