Reading Jane Austen: An Introduction

Reading Jane Austen: An Introduction captures the dynamic range of scholarly, popular, and pedagogical conversations that characterize contemporary Austen studies as a vibrant part of the broader Austen universe. Organized around historically oriented models of reading Austen’s works―re-evaluating the past, considering the present, and imagining the future―the volume includes eight new interdisciplinary essays that show us why we continue to find Austen’s relevance in our contemporary moment, along with a collaborative, conversational conclusion. The goal of the volume is to provide an accessible, concise, and comprehensive set of tools, resources, and models that empower readers to accept the invitation to join in the ongoing critical conversation about Austen. The volume will appeal to teachers of Austen in the high school and university classroom, to leaders of book clubs and reading groups, and to online, fan, and creative communities centering on Austen.

Danielle Spratt (she/her) is Professor of English at California State University, Northridge, where she is Director of Community Engagement. Her areas of interest include eighteenth-century literature and culture, the history of science and medicine, the rise of the novel, public and digital humanities, and critical community engaged research and teaching. She is co-author of Engaging the Age of Jane Austen: Public Humanities in Practice and co-editor of Histories of Science: Natural Philosophy in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World. She is currently finishing a monograph on the history of medicine and reproduction.