Jane Austen

by Darryl Jones

This book offers a one-volume study of Jane Austen that is both a sophisticated critical introduction and a valuable contribution to the study of one of the most popular and enduring British novelists. Darryl Jones provides students with a coherent overview of Austen's work and an idea of the current state of critical debate.

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Professor of English and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Trinity College Dublin

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jones, Darryl. Jane Austen: Critical Issues. MacMillan, 2004.
In this nicely contextualized study of Austen’s novels, I think it is fair to say that Darryl Jones finds more sexual puns and innuendos in Austen’s work than most of us notice the first time around. What does it mean when Emma crosses the ha-ha? Jones does well to remind us that Austen’s heroines are almost all teenagers, and that she wrote marriage-plot stories because that was what there was a market for. Finally, Jones argues that Austen was not ignorant of the war with France that was shaping her society.

[Maris Bounds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well research and well stated book about Austen’s published novels (not covering her juvenilia or her unfinished works). Jones did a great job of covering the critical issues within Austen’s work, although there were places I think he could have gone deeper or, at the very least given his arguments a little more time to breathe.
It will be helpful in my comp exams regardless.