Jane Austen Extended Reading

Women's Circles Broken - Part Three

In this third installment, Meagan explores Alcott's Little Women

Women's Circles Broken - Part Four

In the fourth installment of her thesis, Meagan explores the sisterhood in Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market

Women's Circles Broken - Part Two

In this second part of Meagan's extended essay, she delves into Pride and Prejudice.

Women's Circles Broken - Part One

Meagan Hanley, wrote this multi-part post as her graduate thesis. Her focus was works of literature by female authors, one of whom was Jane Austen. We thought that the entire essay was wonderful, a...

Austen’s Intentional Deprivation of Matriarchy

Mark Massaro discusses the conspicuous absence of mothers in Jane's work.

She Was Only Anne - On Anne Elliot in Persuasion

We don’t usually associate Jane Austen with sadness or depression. And this time, I have to say, we are wrong: Jane didn’t always write about happy women. In fact, there is a special character that...

Aunt Jane's Trial

The Trial of Mrs Jane Leigh Perrot - the Primary Sources by David Pugsley Discussions of Aunt Jane’s trial and the question whether she was innocent or guilty are normally based entirely on John P...

In Defence of Jane Austen

by Rhian Helen Fender   “Mrs Edwards thinks you are a child still. But we know better than that, don’t we.” So began the 2008 television adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel Sense and Sensibilit...

Inner voices: The voices of Anne and Austen in Persuasion

By Camilla Magnotti Komatz with illustrations from Persuasion by C.E. Brock Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last finished novel, is probably the one in which the narrative voice and the protagonist’s voi...

He was only Sir Walter: the opening of Persuasion

By Giulia Magnotti Komatz with illustrations from Persuasion by C.E. Brock The first few paragraphs of Persuasion describe Sir Walter Elliot’s personality. The novel’s opening words - “Sir Walt...

The Beefsteak Club

A political club famous for its steak and potatoes diet

A Closer Look at Catherine Knight

Margaret C. Sullivan takes a closer look at Catherine Knatchbull Knight, the adoptive mother of Jane's brother, Edward