Fans of Jane Austen know her as a keen observer of social mores; between every knowing glance, every turn in the ballroom, every ironic phrase and heroic action was a woman in firm control of her craft. John Mullan, a specialist in 18th-century English literature (How Novels Work), tackles the intricacies of the Austen novel, revealing the subtle, yet complex, influences of culture and society on her fiction while shedding appreciative light on the continuing relevance of her pioneering literary style three centuries after her death.
Mullan's compendium covers 20 topics, examining Austen's characters by their age, styles of address, physical descriptions, speech, the games they play and so on. He even addresses the media portrayals of Austen characters, noting the flaws in screen adaptations of Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Austen was famous for her ability to filter plots through the consciousness of her characters; the literary device she perfected--free indirect style--brings insight into human nature and a person's interior life that sets her apart from her contemporaries.
"Accuracy is her genius," writes Mullan. "Noticing minutiae will lead you to a wonderful connectedness of her novels, where a small detail of wording or motivation in one place will flare with the recollection of something that went much earlier." Indeed, What Matters in Jane Austen? is one collection that Austenites will unabashedly appreciate. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant