Jane Austen鈥檚 six novels, published toward the end of her short life, represent a body of work that is as brilliant as it is compact. Her earlier writings have routinely been dismissed as mere juvenilia, or stepping stones to mature proficiency and greatness. Austen鈥檚 first biographer described them as 鈥渃hildish effusions.鈥� Was he right to do so? Can the novels be definitively separated from the unpublished works? In Jane Austen, Early and Late, Freya Johnston argues that they cannot.
Examining the three manuscript volumes in which Austen collected her earliest writings, Johnston finds that Austen鈥檚 regard and affection for them are revealed by her continuing to revisit and revise them throughout her adult life. The teenage works share the milieu and the humour of the novels, while revealing more clearly the sources and influences upon which Austen drew. Johnston upends the conventional narrative, according to which Austen discarded the satire and fantasy of her first writings in favour of the irony and realism of the novels. By demonstrating a stylistic and thematic continuity across the full range of Austen鈥檚 work, Johnston asks whether it makes sense to speak of an early and a late Austen at all.
Jane Austen, Early and Late offers a new picture of the author in all her complexity and ambiguity, and shows us that it is not necessarily true that early work yields to later, better things.
Awards and Recognition
- An A Kennedy Smith Book of the Year
"Fans of Jane Austen will enjoy Freya Johnston鈥檚 Jane Austen, Early and Late, which examines some of the teenage writings from the author of Pride and Prejudice, many of which were, surprisingly, full of 鈥榞allows humour.鈥�"鈥擬artin Chilton, Independent
"If you know your Austen, this book is a dream."鈥擭orma Clarke, Literary Review
"Austenites will appreciate the historical context Johnston provides. . . . Students and devotees of Austen will appreciate the light shed on a lesser-known part of her career."鈥�Publishers Weekly
"A wonderfully expansive reimagining of the corpus. . . . The great achievement of Johnston鈥檚 book is putting us face-to-face with the writing itself: with the sheer compositional energy of Austen鈥檚 work."鈥擜lex Woloch, Nineteenth-Century Contexts
"In a stream of perceptive and engaging close readings of Austen鈥檚 writing, the book insists on stylistic, thematic and conceptual connections not only between her juvenilia and published novels, but among all the author鈥檚 written output. . . . Johnston also weaves into her analysis a stunning array of works that likely constituted Austen鈥檚 own reading."鈥擬ichelle Levy, Review of English Studies
"A significant contribution to Austen scholarship. . . . [Jane Austen, Early and Late] will certainly spur many to read Austen's manuscript works in a new light."鈥擟atherine Parisian, The Age of Johnson
鈥�Jane Austen, Early and Late is a pleasure to read from start to finish. With writing that鈥檚 clear and engaging, and a reorientation to the novelist that is positively provocative, this fine book offers a brilliant and refreshing take on Austen鈥檚 most surprising, raucous, and neglected writings. Just as importantly, Freya Johnston gives us new ways to understand Austen as an experimental writer whose lifelong commitment to revision and retelling have paved the way for our own careful rereadings of her beloved fiction.鈥濃�擠evoney Looser, author of The Making of Jane Austen
鈥淔reya Johnston鈥檚 book brilliantly illuminates the connections between Austen鈥檚 youthful writings and her published fiction. The novelist is seen afresh, more testing and experimental than ever before.鈥濃�擩ohn Mullan, author of What Matters in Jane Austen?
鈥淥n almost every page of this splendid book, one learns new things about Austen鈥檚 fictions and letters and her relationship to her literary predecessors and contemporaries. Freya Johnston is a formidably talented close reader who, in prose that is full of panache and energy, captures as few critics can the particular stylistic choices and syntactical habits that make Austen鈥檚 voice her own.鈥濃�擠eidre Lynch, editor of Janeites: Austen鈥檚 Disciples and Devotees
鈥�Jane Austen, Early and Late affirms that the juvenilia and published novels remain united in ways that no critic can put asunder.鈥濃�擩anine Barchas, author of The Lost 快色直播 of Jane Austen
