Jane Austen

For many readers Jane Austen is the quintessential English author. Jane Austen sets out to explore the history of this identification with Englishness in the context of a tradition of criticism that has frequently tried to achieve the reverse: to establish her difference, and distance, from us. Rather than simply showing how she differs from the heritage Austen, Robert Miles argues that many of the reasons for Austens construction as an English Cultural icon are to be found in the works formal qualities, and often in her most innovative techniques.