'This ambitious, meticulously researched and wide-ranging study is likely to be of most use to critically engaged scholars of Austen ... [it] provides some genuinely new close readings, and insightful comments on much-read and discussed novels.' The BARS Review 'Steiner has written a complex but rewarding study of Austen's novels, appraising the role of society, gender, and feminist interpersonal relations. [This is] an informative addition to the Austen library.' JASNA News 'Steiner's text is unique both for its broad-ranging philosophical treatment of Austen's work, and for the sustained feminist reading that carefully links Austen's civilising process to the concerns of contemporary readers.' Cercles

• Introduction; Chapter 1 The Juvenilia: Untying the Knots; Chapter 2 Lady Susan and Northanger Abbey : Riot in the Brain; Chapter 3 Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice : Allowing for Difference; Chapter 4 Mansfield Park : Emancipating ‘Puny’ Fanny Price; Chapter 5 Emma : The Art of Quarrelling; Chapter 6 Persuasion : Developing an ‘Elasticity of Mind’;