E199 | Austen | Winter 2008
In describing her own method as a novelist, Austen wrote that she worked on a “little bit (two inches wide) of ivory . . . with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour.” Sir Walter Scott commented that although he could do “the big Bow-Wow strain” of novels very well, Austen had an “exquisite touch which renders ordinary common-place things and characters interesting.” Modern critics have written variously of her “regulated hatred,” her conservative propaganda, and her view of social conventions as fictions. In this E199, we will read four of Austen’s six completed novels in the order of their publication, biographical material on Austen; historical material on the period; and numerous critical works. We will consider many, often conflicting, views of her work and ask questions both about her novelistic practice and about the social problems that her novels engage.
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