In Jane Austen's Cults and Cultures, Claudia L. Johnson shows how Jane Austen became "Jane Austen," a figure intensely-sometimes even wildly-venerated, and often for markedly different reasons. Johnson begins by exploring the most important monuments and portraits of Austen, then passes through the four critical phases of Austen's reception - the Victorian era, the First and Second World Wars, and the establishment of the Austen House and Museum in 1949 - and ponders what the adoration of Austen has meant to readers over the past two centuries. By respecting the intelligence of past commentary about Austen, Johnson shows, we are able to revisit her work and unearth fresh insights and new critical possibilities.
