What Jane Austen's Characters Read (and Why)

The first detailed account of Austen's characters' reading experience to date, this book explores both what her characters read and what their literary choices would have meant to Austen's own readership, both during her life and today.

Jane Austen was a voracious and extensive reader, so it's perhaps no surprise that many of her characters are also readers-from Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice to Fanny Price in Mansfield Park. Beginning by looking at Austen's own reading as well as her interest in readers' responses to her work, the book then focuses on each of her novels, looking at the particulars of her characters' reading and unpacking the multiple (and often surprising) ways in which what they read informs our reading. What Jane Austen's Characters Read (and Why) uses Austen's own love of reading to invite us to rethink the ways in which she imagined her characters and their lives beyond the novels.

Introduction: Drawing Character, Reading Books: Building a Society of Readers
Chapter 1: "Her Reading Was Very Extensive": Austen and Her Community of Great Readers
Chapter 2: Readers of Feeling: Northanger Abbey and Sensibility
Chapter 3: "What Becomes of the Moral?" Reading Conduct Books and Pride and Prejudice
Chapter 4: "In the Midst of Theatrical Nonsense": Performative Reading in Mansfield Park
Chapter 5: Becoming a Renter, a Chuser of Books in Mansfield Park
Chapter 6: Meaning to Read More: Emma and the Clever Reader
Chapter 7: Readers of Romance: Persuasion and Sanditon
Bibliography