' … a genuinely original work, and one of considerable interest for what it has to teach us about a major writer. What it offers is a rather rare thing: a 'new' Jane Austen, who was not merely open in 'influences' from her desultory reading but had read certain authors intensely and creatively, almost as Keats read Shakespeare or Eliot read Dante. The book is no less than a recreation of substantial areas of Jane Austen's mental and imaginative life.' Norman Page, University of Nottingham

• Introduction; 1. Northanger Abbey; 2. The return to Richardson; 3. Sense and Sensibility; 4. Pride and Prejudice; 5. Mansfield Park; 6. Emma; 7. Persuasion conclusion: nothing will come of nothing; Appendices; Index.