Jane Austen - A Sourcebook

Sep 19, 2026

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Jane Austen is introduced through a clear, context-rich guide to her enduring relevance in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England. The guide offers accessible background on publication history and film adaptations, outlines key critical texts and perspectives on Austen’s life and work, and provides cross-references linking texts, contexts, and criticism. Readers receive pointers for further study, positioned within the Routledge Guides to Literature series.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages223

Reading Time5 h 43 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and referencing

Introduction

I: Life and contexts

Austen’s life

Austen’s England: hierarchy, modernity and gender

Austen’s profession: writing, publicity and the market

Austen in literary history 1

The novel and criticism

Political economy, sentiment and marriage

Female education

Austen in literary history 2

Romanticism

Jane Austen Jane Austen is one of England’s most enduringly popular authors, renowned for her subtle observations of the provincial middle classes of late eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century England. This guide to Austen’s much-loved work offers: • an accessible introduction to the contexts and many interpretations of Austen’s texts, including film adaptations, from publication to the present; • an introduction to key critical texts and perspectives on Austen’s life and work, situated within a broader critical history; • cross-references between sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism; • suggestions for further reading. Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Jane Austen and seeking not only a guide to her works but also a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds them. Robert P.Irvine is a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper: A Sourcebook and Critical Edition edited by Catherine J.Golden Kate Chopin’s The Awakening: A Sourcebook edited by Janet Beer and Elizabeth Nolan D.H.Lawrence by Fiona Becket The Poems of W.B. Yeats: A Sourcebook edited by Michael O’Neill E.M.Forster’sA Passage to India: A Sourcebook edited by Peter Childs Samuel Beckett by David Pattie Routledge Guides to Literature * Editorial Advisory Board: Richard Bradford (University of Ulster at Coleraine), Jan Jedrzejewski (University of Ulster at Coleraine), Duncan Wu (St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford) Routledge Guides to Literature offer clear introductions to the most widely studied authors and literary texts. Each book engages with texts, contexts and criticism, highlighting the range of critical views and contextual factors that need to be taken into consideration in advanced studies of literary works. The series encourages informed but independent readings of texts by ranging as widely as possible across the contextual and critical issues relevant to the works examined and highlighting areas of debate as well as those of critical consensus. Alongside general guides to texts and authors, the series includes ‘sourcebooks’, which allow access to reprinted contextual and critical materials as well as annotated extracts of primary text. Available in this series Geoffrey Chaucer by Gillian Rudd Ben Jonson by James Loxley William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: A Sourcebook edited by S.P.Cerasano William Shakespeare’s KingLear: A Sourcebook edited by Grace loppolo William Shakespeare’s Othello: A Sourcebook edited by Andrew Hadfield John Milton by Richard Bradford John Milton’s Paradise Lost: A Sourcebook edited by Margaret Kean Alexander Pope by Paul Baines Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: A Sourcebook edited by Adriana Craciun Jane Austen’s Emma: A Sourcebook edited by Paula Byrne Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Sourcebook edited by Timothy Morton iv The Poems of John Keats: A Sourcebook edited by John Strachan Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield: A Sourcebook edited by Richard J.Dunn Charles Dickens’s Bleak House: A Sourcebook edited by Janice M.Allan Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: A Sourcebook edited by Michael J.Davey Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: A Sourcebook edited by Debra J.Rosenthal Walt Whitman’sA Song of Myself: A Sourcebook and Critical Edition edited by Ezra Greenspan Robert Browning by Stefan Hawlin Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler: A Sourcebook edited by Christopher Innes Thomas Hardy by Geoffrey Harvey * Some books in this series were originally published in the Routledge Literary Sourcebooks series, edited by Duncan Wu, or the Complete Critical Guide to English Literature series, edited by Richard Bradford and Jan Jedrzejewski. Jane Austen Robert P.Irvine LONDON AND NE

FAQs

What does the guide provide for studying Jane Austen?

It offers an accessible introduction to contexts and interpretations of Austen’s works, plus introductions to key critical texts and perspectives on her life and writing.

How does the book help connect different kinds of materials?

Cross-references link sections so readers can see relationships between texts, contexts, and criticism.

Who is the editor of this Jane Austen volume?

Robert P. Irvine is identified as the editor and lecturer in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.

Sep 19, 2026

Upload by Noah