San Antonio College Library

[The author] "turns her attention to the fascinating nuances of Austen's language, and the way it embodies her most profound beliefs about human conduct and character. This book enhances understanding of Austen's moral values through the discussion of key words, investigates changes of meaning, and explains words which may confuse modern readers ... No other author uses abstract nouns as extensively as Jane Austen. Three of her six novels even draw...

"The romance novel has the strange honor of being the most popular but least respected of literary genres. While it remains consistently dominant in bookstores and on best-seller lists, it is also widely dismissed by the critical community. These scholars tend to regard readers, who are largely women, as passive consumers easily manipulated by romances, attributing the genre's overwhelming appeal to inadequacies and weaknesses in the readers themselves....

An introduction to the life and work of eighteenth-century English author Jane Austen, featuring a biographical profile, a critical analysis of the themes, symbols, and ideas that appear in her writing, a selection of critical essays, a chronology, and references.

"In this illustrated and lively work, Auerbach surveys two centuries of editing, censoring, and distorting Jane Austen's life and writings. Auerbach samples Austen's flamboyant, risque adolescent works featuring heroines who get drunk, lie, steal, raise armies, and throw rivals out of windows. She demonstrates that Austen constantly tested and improved her skills by setting herself a new challenge in each of her six novels." "In addition, Auerbach...