Jane Austen and the Popular Novel : The Determined Author

"Jane Austen and the popular novel: The Determined Author" offers a reinterpretation of Austen's later novels by exploring their interactions within the fiction of the 1810s, a period which witnessed the efflorescence of women's writing.

Building on recent ground-breaking bibliographic research into the novel, this study situates Austen in the literary marketplace and offers new insights into the nature of 'innovation', which arises less from her uniqueness than from her sensitivity to a rich and varied genre.