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When you need more (about) Jane Austen...
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Was Jane Austen a Secret Radical?
I argue "No, she wasn't." Check out my four-part blog series about Jane Austen: The Secret Radical Favourite Jane Austen podcasts:
Podcasts which discuss Jane Austen from the perspective of her writing craft and her moral lessons:
Can't get enough of Fanny Price? Or can't figure out why Austen created such an apparently meek heroine?
Can't figure out why Henry and Mary Crawford are the baddies in Mansfield Park, or wish do you wish that Fanny had married Henry? Check out this thoughtful article which explains "In Mansfield Park, Austen sketches a picture of wit without candor, of intelligence without a moral compass, in both Henry and Mary Crawford. She shows us that, even more than brilliance, virtue is the greatest human good."
Historian Alice Loxton with five reasons why Jane Austen matters.
Jane Austen and Aristotle
I won't pretend that I know all about the roots of classical Western thought, but here is a succinct article by someone who does know something about it, looking at how Austen's characters illustrate Aristotelian and Christian thinking about virtue and happiness. Thinking of writing your own Jane Austen fan fiction?
Write like Austen is a website which will let you know which words Jane Austen used. For example, she never used the words "mayhap" or "steed." A useful compendium of the Regency-era basics you want to get right is available here.
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On-line Articles I've written about Austen
How an influential academic formulated an entire radical theory about Austen based around a riddle which Mr. Woodhouse partly quoted in Emma: My article for JASNA Persuasions online: "From Namby-Pamby to Sinister: the meaning and significance of Kitty, a Fair But Frozen Maid." Did Jane Austen get her inspiration for Admiral Craft in Persuasion from a now-forgotten novel? Another article for JASNA Persuasions My article about the French emigres who fled to England during the French Revolution My article about Mansfield Park and "conduct novels" My take on Penelope Clay and how I wrote the story about her for Rational Creatures The Loneliness of the long-distance Austen heroine. "Interrogating Jane" -- the debate around Austen and slavery. Great video introduction to Austen:
"She was an ambitious and stern moralist... the novel was her chosen weapon in the struggle to reform humanity." "From 'Pictures of Perfection'"
This BYU student paper by Gretchen PIcklesimer Kenney lays out how Austen's heroines (and minor female characters) differ from the stock heroines in 18th century novels. (link to pdf) 
Read with Austen: A digital re-creation of the library at her wealthy brother's estate at Godmersham Park
The Godmersham Lost Sheep Society
is looking for books that used to belong to Jane Austen's relations, the Knight family. (Austen's brother Edward was adopted by the wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Knight.) Click here for more details and images of the book plates which will help antiquarian book lovers identify these books. |