Jane Austen the Reader—The Artist As Critic

How did Jane Austen come to write six novels that are still widely regarded as some of the highest achievements of the genre? The answer lies in understanding what Austen read, and how she read it. Jane Austen the Reader shows how the books Austen read - and the critical way in which she read them - influenced her writing, and her artistic innovations. Austen's steadfast belief in the possibilities of fiction sustained her through early rejection and disappointment, and led to the creation of some of literature's masterpieces. Austen devoured drama, history, poetry and novels, but it was not just as a passive consumer looking for entertainment, nor as a writer searching for ideas that Austen engaged with literature. Rather, she was a critical reader - investigating and evaluating literature, and articulating in her own works her vision of what the novel could be.

Olivia Murphy is a Teaching Fellow at the Women's College, University of Sydney, Australia, having recently completed a doctorate in English Literature at the University of Oxford, UK.