[eBook Code] 30 Great Myths about Jane Austen (eBook Code, 1st)

Abbreviations and Note on the Text vii

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction xi

Myth 1 Jane Austen had no interest in fame 1

Myth 2 There is no sex in Jane Austen’s novels 7

Myth 3 Jane Austen wrote on little bits of ivory 14

Myth 4 Jane Austen’s juvenilia are scraps which she outgrew 19

Myth 5 Jane Austen’s novels are naturalistic 27

Myth 6 Jane Austen was unconscious of her art 34

Myth 7 Northanger Abbey is a spoof on Gothic fiction 43

Myth 8 The Bath Jane Austen knew and loathed 49

Myth 9 Jane Austen’s writing is easy to understand 56

Myth 10 Sense and Sensibility is a satire on sensibility 61

Myth 11 Jane Austen was the best-selling novelist of her time 66

Myth 12 Regency Austen 72

Myth 13 Only women read Jane Austen 80

Myth 14 As Pride and Prejudice shows, all Austen’s novels are love stories 85

Myth 15 Jane Austen never mentions the war 93

Myth 16 Something happened to Jane Austen when she wrote Mansfield Park 101

Myth 17 Jane Austen disapproved of the theater 107

Myth 18 Jane Austen was a Christian moralist 114

Myth 19 In Emma, Jane Austen created a heroine no one but an author would love 120

Myth 20 Jane Austen and the amorous effects of brass 128

Myth 21 Persuasion is an autumnal novel 134

Myth 22 Jane Austen was a feminist/Jane Austen was not a feminist 141

Myth 23 Jane Austen’s letters are mean and trivial 147

Myth 24 Jane Austen was anonymous 155

Myth 25 Jane Austen’s novels depict the traditional world of the aristocracy 160

Myth 26 Jane Austen was a comic novelist 168

Myth 27 Jane Austen’s novels are about good manners 174

Myth 28 Jane Austen’s muslins 179

Myth 29 Jane Austen writes escape fiction 187

Myth 30 Jane Austen was a star-crossed lover 193

Further Reading 200

Index 203