Jane Austen

Praise for Jane Austen when it first appeared in 1986: '...a fine achievement...a book that sometimes provokes but invariably stimulates.' - Peter Kemp, The Independent ...'one of the most readable books yet to appear on Jane Austen, as well as the most interesting in itself.' - John Bayley, London Review of Books 'He has a fine eye for the apparently slight detail which can unfurl signification.Tanner makes the reader think anew about Jane Austen and about much else in the light of her writing.' - Gillian Beer, The Times Higher Educational Supplement

Tony Tanner's classic text on Jane Austen addresses the issues that have always occupied the author's most perceptive critics, and offers an illuminating and refreshing analysis of Austen's novels.Tony Tanner's classic text on Jane Austen addresses the issues that have always occupied the author's most perceptive critics, and offers an illuminating and refreshing analysis of Austen's novels. Tanner shows how Austen changed from a basically accepting view of 'society' to a more questioning one and considers the problems of authority, power and the position of women, as well as the relationship between ethics, language and behaviour.

This reissued edition features a new Preface by leading Romantic scholar Marilyn Gaull who examines Tanner's background and places the original work in context. Lively and informative, the Preface helps to reinforce and explain the continued importance of Tanner's work. Accompanied by an insightful Note on the Text by Austen scholar John Wiltshire, and an expanded Bibliography and Index, this is a timely republication of a study which is now regarded as one of the finest, and most accessible, introductions to a great novelist.