Jane Austen was received by her contemporaries as a new voice, but her late twentieth-century reputation as a nostalgic reactionary still lingers on. In this radical revision of her engagement with the culture and politics of her age, Peter Knox-Shaw argues that Austen was a writer steeped in the Enlightenment, and that her allegiance to a sceptical tradition within it, shaped by figures such as Adam Smith and David Hume, lasted throughout her career. Knox-Shaw draws on archival and other neglected sources to reconstruct the intellectual atmosphere of the Steventon Rectory where Austen wrote her juvenilia, and follows the course of her work through the 1790s and onwards, showing how minutely responsive it was to the many shifting movements of those turbulent years. Jane Austen and the Enlightenment is an important contribution to the study both of Jane Austen and of intellectual history at the turn of the nineteenth century.

An important contribution to the study of Jane Austen and of intellectual history at the turn of the nineteenth century.

About the Author
Peter Knox-Shaw is a Research Associate at the University of Cape Town.

Reviews
'An intelligent and inspiring critique that asks us to return to Austen, her contemporaries and her predecessors with an increased sensitivity to the connections between them, and a renewed pleasure in the complexity of the novels themselves.' Michael Caines, The Times Literary Supplement
'Contributes greatly to a new reading of the novels. His demonstration is very convincing ... [he] gives historical justification to her progressivisms while other critics only assert it.' Chloe Beccaria, Cercles
'... constantly illuminating and abundantly well written. His exploration of the routine topics - including such hoary old chestnuts as the juvenilia, the picturesque, the Steventon theatricals, and Evangelicalism - is original, informative and effectively harnessed to his overall argument. And what emerges from all this is a more interesting Jane Austen - an author better read, better educated and better informed than we have been given reason to suppose.' Brian Southam, Jane Austen Newsletter
'Jane Austen and the Enlightenment is a triumph: one of the most exciting publications to appear on the author in recent years, and one that genuinely opens new horizons. It is essential reading for scholars of Austen's works and for those interested in the relationship of literature and philosophy. Accessibly and felicitously written, it also has much to offer general readers of Austen.' E. J. Clery, Modern Philology
'... supremely astute and discriminating ...' Freya Johnson, Year's Work in English Studies
'... densely argued, readable, and exceptionally exciting ... his success in this fine study is a tribute to his cautiously conservative scholarly approach.' Daniel Traister, JASNA News



Book Information
ISBN 9780521843461
Author Peter Knox-Shaw
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 590g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 21mm