The politics of Jane Austen

the long version

Jane Austen is one of the great formative influences on thinking about 'England' and 'Englishness', about class, ideology and gender issues. But this book shows how the critical convoy for 'Jane' has aligned her with conservative views which her texts entertain - but don't avow. Indeed attempts to conscript her work for a rather crusty, Tory view of life ironically deflect attention from what, ultimately, she is to be valued for. Although there is an 'Austen industry' and a fairly settled consensus on what she signifies, Edward Neill shows that this is largely illusion, and that much traditional criticism has been fundamentally misdirected.