Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Is It ‘A Marriage Of True Minds’? Balanced Reading In Northanger Abbey And Persuasion, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Jane Austen often uses reading as a way to develop her characters. For instance, in Persuasion, Captain Benwick‘s melancholic disposition is revealed through his partiality for Romantic poetry, but Anne Elliot’s value for balance is expressed when she recommends moral essays. Other times, and not unfrequently, characters’ reading choice falls on the works of William Shakespeare—such as Hamlet, which Willoughby reads to Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, and the excerpts from Elegant Extracts we learn that Northanger Abbey’s Catherine Morland has memorized.

Some of Austen’s characters read Shakespeare with seductive intent, but others show their …

Review Of Mansfield Park: An Annotated Edition, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Mansfield Park: An Annotated Edition, edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch.

Review Of Everybody's Jane: Austen In The Popular Imagination, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

Book review of Everybody's Jane: Austen in the Popular Imagination, by Juliette Wells.

A View From Confinement: Persuasion’S Resourceful Mrs. Smith, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

"Mrs. Smith is a unique character type in Austen’s fiction: the superfluous female. Austen uses this character to reflect on a possible tragic life for the heroine while highlighting the plight of the poor widow and her lack of perceived value in the society reflected in Persuasion."

Secret Sharing And Secret Keeping: Lucy Steele’S Triumph In Speculation, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

"By analyzing Lucy's character as a commodity on the marriage market, we can better understand Jane Austen's take on value: what might be perceived as valuable in the marketplace might not have real or intrinsic value. Lucy knows that her value is based on mere perception; in a consumer economy the skill of speculation may be necessary. "

Jane Fairfax’S Choice: The Sale Of Human Flesh Or Human Intellect, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

"It is Jane Fairfax’s story rather than Emma’s, however, that exposes the grim reality of life for many women of the nineteenth century: the attractive and accomplished but penniless young woman is not rescued by a good man. She marries a man who in Austen’s other novels would have been rewarded by a mindless flirt (Lydia Bennet) or an adulteress (Maria Rushworth). Through Jane Fairfax’s story—her life-defining choice between selling herself in the marriage market or the governess trade—Austen subtly exposes the grim reality of life for many women who were handsome, clever, but not rich. Jane Fairfax, perhaps even …

Addressing Readerly Unease: Discovering The Gothic In Mansfield Park, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

"Many readers are uncomfortable vvith Mansfield Park since Jane Austen includes aspects of the sentimental novel and the fairy tale in a novel of manners, and because Fanny, who suffers and prospers, is an unusual heroine. This unease with Mansfield Park may come from the placement of gothic symbols and characters within the world of the English gentry. By under standing Mansfield Park's affinity with the gothic novels of the eighteenth century, we might also understand our discomfort with Fanny Price."

Review Of Jane Austen On Film And Television: A Critical Study Of The Adaptations, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Jane Austen on Film and Television: A Critical Study of the Adaptations by Sue Parrll.

Austen’S Attractive Rogues: Willoughby, Wickham And Frank Churchill, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

"Marianne, Elizabeth, and Emma needed a meteor to burst through the mist of their own self-delusion. What is it about the Willoughbys, Wickhams, and Frank Churchills of the world that continues to attract us? We understand that Marianne is easily fooled, but what is it that deceives and attracts Elizabeth and Emma?"