Jane Austen's Literary Manuscripts: A Study of the Novelist's Development through the Surviving Papers. Revised Edition

(Paperback)

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Jane Austen's Literary Manuscripts remains the definitive account of the novelist's surviving papers. These date from 1787 to 1817, from the first beginning to the veyr end of her writing career. Their evidence considerably deepens our understanding of the imaginative process that stands behind the composition of the great novels. In Sanditon, the last work, we see the promise of a further and startling development in her art. The influence of her childhood reading and home life is considered in the first chapter, and a further new chapter examines Sir Charles Grandison, a work newly attributed to Jane Austen by Brian Southam in 1977. In an appendix, Southam discusses Mrs Leavis's theory concerning the relationship between Jane Austen's life and art, and between the juvenilia and the later novels.

Reviews

'Thorough, informed and sensitive....a notable piece of work.' -- Times Literary Supplement * Blurb from reviewer *
'[this] pioneering investigation...tells us much more about Jane Austen both as a person and as an artists than any popular biography could do.' -- Graham Handley * Blurb from reviewer *
'One of the most valuable features of his study is that it concentrates attention on the professionalism of Jane Austen as a novelist.' -- Marilyn Butler, Essays in Criticism * Blurb from reviewer *

Author Bio

Brian Southam is former Chairman of the Jane Austen Society. Among his many books are the two volumes of Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage (1968, 1987).