What Matters in Jane Austen? - bookrastinating.com

Hardcover, 342 pages

English language

Published May 22, 2025 by Bloomsbury Publishing.

ISBN:: 978-1-5266-9394-5

250TH BIRTHDAY EDITION

'Almost as good as finding an unpublished novel' The Lady 'Any new book on Austen raises the urgent question, Would I get more pleasure from reading this than from re-reading my favourite Austen novel? You'll know after a few pages here that you've made the right choice' Sunday Times

Is there any sex in Jane Austen? Why do her plots rely on blunders? Which important characters never actually speak?

Jane Austen's novels have been a staple of the British canon since the nineteenth century. Yet critics of the time did not appreciate the true complexity of her work. Neither Austen's literary innovations nor the cunning intracacy of her novels were understood – much less the fascinating patterns and puzzles thrown up by some of the most famous works of English literature. Nothing, John Mullan argues, is accidental or coincidental in Austen. As she herself …

250TH BIRTHDAY EDITION

'Almost as good as finding an unpublished novel' The Lady 'Any new book on Austen raises the urgent question, Would I get more pleasure from reading this than from re-reading my favourite Austen novel? You'll know after a few pages here that you've made the right choice' Sunday Times

Is there any sex in Jane Austen? Why do her plots rely on blunders? Which important characters never actually speak?

Jane Austen's novels have been a staple of the British canon since the nineteenth century. Yet critics of the time did not appreciate the true complexity of her work. Neither Austen's literary innovations nor the cunning intracacy of her novels were understood – much less the fascinating patterns and puzzles thrown up by some of the most famous works of English literature. Nothing, John Mullan argues, is accidental or coincidental in Austen. As she herself said, she wrote for readers who have 'a great deal of ingenuity themselves'.

What Matters in Jane Austen? gets to the heart of what it is that makes Austen's work so singular. In twenty chapters, answering questions her novels have posed for over two centuries, Mullan uncovers the hidden truth of an extraordinary fictional world and reveals the true brilliance – and underappreciated complexity – of Austen's oeuvre.

3 editions

Elena. reviewed What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan

A must-read

5 stars

I don't easily call a book a must-read, but this time it simply is what this book is. If you like Jane Austen's work, and maybe even it you don't, you may want to read it. This book gives insight into her novels as well as into her world and time, that may not be easily had for us modern readers. John Mullan answers 20 questions, which did not exactly excite me at first I have to admit, but from the first question onwards I didn't want to put the book down again. The most interesting chapters to me were the ones answering the following questions: What do characters call each other? Which important characters never speak in the novels? What do characters say when the heroine is not there? What makes characters blush? When does Jane Austen speak directly to the reader? And: How experimental a novelist is Jane …

I don't easily call a book a must-read, but this time it simply is what this book is. If you like Jane Austen's work, and maybe even it you don't, you may want to read it. This book gives insight into her novels as well as into her world and time, that may not be easily had for us modern readers. John Mullan answers 20 questions, which did not exactly excite me at first I have to admit, but from the first question onwards I didn't want to put the book down again. The most interesting chapters to me were the ones answering the following questions: What do characters call each other? Which important characters never speak in the novels? What do characters say when the heroine is not there? What makes characters blush? When does Jane Austen speak directly to the reader? And: How experimental a novelist is Jane Austen?