Every generation rediscovers Jane Austen with a renewed passion for her timeless stories of romance, family relations, and foibles of human nature. Today she is more popular than ever. Natalie Tyler captures the essence of this enthusiasm in a book that shuns obscure academic approaches and provides lively discussions about every one of Austen's novels and characters. Readers can experience the highlights of Austen's early writings, learn about the man who almost won her hand, and puzzle over what on earth she meant by the last line of Persuasion. Tyler includes quizzes, eye-catching illustrations, interviews with Austen scholars and lovers of her work-such as Jane Smiley, T. C. Boyle, and Miss Manners-plus a filmography, a bibliography, and browsable quotes and sidebars to create this wildly entertaining Austen companion.

Natalie Tyler has been a devoted Jane Austen scholar and lecturer for more than a decade. She is currently a professor at Ohio State University.

Acknowledgments

ix

Preface

xvii

On Jane Austen

1

(6)

How Do We Love Jane Austen? Let Us Count the Ways

7

(8)

Are You a Janeite?

11

(1)

Do You Belong to the School of Gentle Jane?

11

(1)

Do You Belong to the Ironic Jane School?

12

(1)

Do You Belong to the Subversive Jane School?

12

(3)

Part I: Early Life and Juvenilia

15

(48)

Early Life and Family

17

(14)

Steventon: The Austen Family

17

(1)

Bringing Up Baby

17

(2)

A Pruned Family Tree: Jane Austen's Immediate Family

19

(5)

Life at the Steventon Rectory

24

(2)

The Family Appearance

26

(1)

``Cacoethes Scribendi'': The Incurable Itch to Write

27

(1)

The Abbey School

28

(3)

Dancing Days and Juvenilia

31

(32)

Highlights of the Juvenilia

31

(3)

Authorial Apprenticeship and Ridiculous Novels

34

(1)

The Loiterer

35

(1)

Volume the First: Pulp Fiction

36

(1)

Frederic and Elfrida: An Auspicious Debut

37

(1)

Decapitations Are Us: Austen's Early Motif of Beheadings

38

(1)

``My Hat, on Which My Principal Hopes of Happiness Depend''

39

(1)

Volume the Second: ``Sallies, Bonmots & Repartees''

40

(1)

Love and Friendship

40

(1)

The History of England

41

(2)

Revolutions

43

(1)

Volume the Third: Evelyn and Catherine, or The Bower

43

(1)

Lady Susan

44

(2)

Mrs. Leigh-Perrot: Austen's Brush with Incarceration and Other Scandals

46

(1)

A Recipe for Syllabub

47

(1)

Tom Lefroy, Harris Bigg-Wither, and Other Suitors

48

(3)

Leaving Steventon

51

(1)

Bath

51

(2)

Mr. Austen Exits Life's Pulpit

53

(1)

Regina Barreca: Jane Austen as ``Bad Girl''

54

(3)

The Watsons

57

(1)

The Marriage Plot

58

(5)

Part II: Major Works

63

(172)

Northanger Abbey

65

(25)

Publication: A Fraught Road

67

(1)

Rakes and Rattles

68

(1)

``Learning to Love a Hyacinth''

69

(2)

Joan Vredenburgh on Bath and General Tilney

71

(2)

The Nature of Gothic Novels

73

(2)

David Riede on Jane Austen and Romanticism

75

(2)

``A Neighborhood of Voluntary Spies''

77

(2)

A Very Respectable Man, Though His Name Was Richard

79

(1)

John Thorpe's Horse and Gig

80

(1)

Henry Tilney's Knowledge of Muslin

81

(1)

Quiz: Letter Writing in the Novels

82

(2)

John Thorpe and Henry Tilney on Mrs. Radcliffe

84

(1)

Jim Buckley on General Tilney's Rumford Fireplace

85

(1)

Money

86

(1)

Average Income, England and Wales, 1803

87

(2)

``The Tell-Tale Compression of the Pages''

89

(1)

Sense and Sensibility

90

(23)

The Novels of Sensibility

92

(1)

The Dangers of Sensibility

92

(1)

Sense and Sensibility: A Checklist

93

(2)

James Battersby on Jane Austen and the Eighteenth Century

95

(2)

Georgian London

97

(2)

Harriet Walter on Fanny Dashwood

99

(2)

Fanny Dashwood and King Lear's Daughters

101

(1)

Quiz: Who Said That? Great Lines from Jane Austen's Novels

102

(2)

Elinor Dashwood: Governor of Her Own Feelings

104

(2)

The Madness of Marianne

106

(2)

Cowper and Crabbe

108

(1)

Lucy Steele

109

(1)

Sexy Men

109

(2)

Weddings

111

(2)

Pride and Prejudice

113

(27)

The Famous First Sentence

115

(1)

The Publication History of Pride and Prejudice

115

(2)

Primogeniture and Entailment

117

(1)

Accomplishments and Eligibility

117

(2)

Veronica Leahy on Conduct Literature

119

(3)

Walking

122

(2)

Quiz: Do Appearances Deceive?

124

(2)

Fay Weldon on Jane Austen

126

(2)

Clergymen: Ridiculous and Sublime

128

(1)

Mr. Bennet

129

(2)

The Liveliness of Your Mind

131

(3)

Darcy and Pemberley

134

(1)

Jane Bennet

135

(1)

Elizabeth Bennet

136

(1)

Mary Bennet

137

(1)

Dr. Samuel Johnson

138

(2)

Mansfield Park

140

(25)

The Unbearable Loneliness of Being Fanny Price

143

(1)

The Servant Problem

143

(2)

Mark Conroy on Jane Austen's Popularity

145

(2)

Chawton: An Intense Burst of Writing

147

(3)

Anna Massey

150

(1)

Quiz: Food in Jane Austen

151

(1)

T. Coraghessan Boyle

152

(2)

Home Theatricals: Lovers' Vows

154

(1)

Phoebe Spinrad on Mothers and Fathers in Austen's Novels

155

(4)

The British Empire

159

(2)

Fanny Wars

161

(2)

Squalor in Portsmouth

163

(2)

Emma

165

(35)

``Handsome, Clever, and Rich''

168

(2)

Joan Wolf on the Regency Period

170

(4)

Judith Martin: ``Miss Manners'' on Jane Austen

174

(2)

Who Is Vulgar and How to Avoid Vulgarity

176

(3)

Ten Surefire Ways to Be Vulgar

179

(2)

Mrs. Goddard's School

181

(1)

A Fling at the Slave Trade

182

(2)

``Caro Sposo''

184

(1)

On Becoming a Governess

184

(2)

Is Emma Gay?

186

(1)

Why Does Frank Churchill Change His Name?

187

(1)

What Is a Natural Child?

188

(1)

Edith Lank on Jane Austen

189

(2)

Edith Lank: A Theory on Harriet Smith's Parentage

191

(2)

Mr. Woodhouse

193

(1)

Phyllida Law on Mrs. Bates

194

(2)

Prunella Scales on Miss Bates

196

(1)

Nieces and Nephews

197

(3)

Persuasion

200

(19)

Marlene Longenecker on Jane Austen and Feminism

202

(2)

Quiz: Reading and Readers in Jane Austen

204

(2)

Jan Fergus on Whiners and Complainers

206

(2)

Sir Walter Elliot

208

(1)

Class

209

(2)

The Baronetage and the Peerage

211

(1)

Mrs. Smith

212

(1)

Jane Smiley on Jane Austen

213

(3)

The Famous Final Sentence of Persuasion

216

(3)

Sandition: The Final Year

219

(16)

Nineteenth-Century Wellville

220

(1)

Hypochondriacs

221

(1)

The Circulating Library

222

(2)

Quiz: Illnesses and Hypochondria

224

(1)

Sir Edward Denham, Bart.

225

(2)

What Jane Austen Earned from Her Books During Her Lifetime

227

(1)

Jane Austen's Illness and Death

227

(1)

Cassandra's Conflagration

228

(2)

Some Dissenting Views on Jane Austen

230

(2)

John McAleer on Ancestry and Biography

232

(3)

Part III: The Legacy

235

(44)

Jane Austen in the Twentieth Century

237

(19)

The Janeites

237

(3)

Jennifer Crusie on Jane Austen as the Mother of the Modern Romance Novel

240

(2)

Soap Opera Divas on Jane Austen

242

(1)

Alton Abbey and Jane Austen Retreats

243

(1)

Elsa Solender on the Jane Austen Society of North America

244

(3)

All About JASNA

247

(1)

The Annual General Meeting of JASNA

248

(2)

Cyber Jane: Austen Sites on the Internet

250

(1)

Dramatizations of the Novels

250

(2)

Emily Auerbach: The Courage to Write---Women Novelists and Poets

252

(2)

Tobacco Cards: Jane Austen Is Gaining on Ty Cobb

254

(1)

Jane Austen Books: A Bookstore

255

(1)

Film Adaptations

256

(14)

Linda Mizejewski on Austen and the Woman's Film

256

(2)

Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield on Jane Austen in Hollywood

258

(2)

Feature Films and Video Adaptations: A Selection

260

(7)

Douglas McGrath on His Film Emma

267

(3)

Continuations, Sequels, and Spin-offs

270

(9)

Julia Barrett on Jane Austen Sequels

271

(1)

Stephanie Barron on Jane Austen as Detective

272

(3)

Sequels and Spin-offs: A Select List

275

(4)

Bibliography

279

(8)

Barry Roth, Bibliographer of Jane Austen Studies

279

(2)

Select Bibliography

281

(3)

Periodicals

284

(1)

Interviews

285

(2)

Answers to Quizzes

287

(4)

Index

291

(8)

Illustration Credits

299

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