A mug with a red heart kept on a stack of books.
British Literature

Jane Austen’s Legacy: Aunt Jane and ‘Janeites’

October 5, 2022

Jane Austen became popular as ‘Aunt Jane’, and even those not related to her began to call her by this nickname; while the readers who admired and together discussed her fiction named themselves ‘Janeites’. […]

Silhouette sketch of a woman writing on a desk.
British Literature

Jane Austen: Enabling and Fostering Generations of Writers

October 5, 2022

Jane Austen wrote in a family community of writers. Her descendants may have influenced her writing. Meanwhile, her works and their success encouraged several of her own family members who became accomplished writers and publishers. […]

Stack of books on a table with shelves of books in the background.
British Literature

Jane Austen: Born in a Literary Family

October 5, 2022

Jane Austen came from a large family, who were also writers. Austen’s personal letters includes notes on her parents, siblings, and other family members. Her letters show that she corresponded with them about fiction writing. […]

Illustration of Jane Austen
British Literature

Lady Susan: A Master in the Art of Manipulation

September 29, 2022

Lady Susan shows that, as an author, Jane Austen was powerful and bold. Some critics see Lady Susan as a significant work that offers an understanding of Austen’s fictional method and her self-concept as an author. […]

Image of a person holding a book in their hand and reading
British Literature

Understanding the Ambiguous Ending of Austen’s ‘Lady Susan’

September 29, 2022

Some critics say the concluding moral in ‘Lady Susan’ is sloppily tacked on. But, there are many who consider the ending to be an intentional literary act, composed at a time when a great deal of polite fiction was expected to have a neat, pat, didactic moral lesson to tie together all of the loose ends of the story. […]

Sketch of Jane Austen
British Literature

Austen’s Lady Susan: A Heroine or a Villain?

September 28, 2022

Lady Susan has a lying, cheating, beautiful widow as its main character. Lady Susan herself is not written as a character in black or white. She is someone that many readers find simultaneously captivating and horrifying. […]

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