Why do we need another edition of Mansfield Park? Particularly, what is the justification for an expensive one, when we can get a plain reprint for $5, or a well-annotated paperback for $10? The answer is the one that all scholarly editors are driven by: editorial principles have changed. What was considered acceptable textual practice even twenty years ago no longer fulfils readers’ desires to ... (read more)
Penny Gay
Penny Gay is Professor Emerita in English Literature and Drama at the University of Sydney. Her books include Jane Austen and the Theatre (CUP 2002) and As She Likes It: Shakespeare’s Unruly Women (Routledge 1994), as well as shorter studies of individual Austen novels and Shakespeare plays.
John Wiltshire, the distinguished Austen scholar based at La Trobe University, has produced his fourth book on Jane Austen since 1992. Here, in a return to the critical bedrock of close reading, he invites us to share his pursuit of the ‘hidden’ Jane Austen – the supremely nuanced prose stylist.
Wiltshire argues that historical context is ultimately less important than ‘the implicit sugge ... (read more)