Jane Austen

In words that might have belonged to one of her more modest heroines, Jane Austen once half-jokingly remarked that her writing was the equivalent of a miniature, "a little bit of Ivory, two inches wide, on which I work with a brush so fine as to produce little effect after much labour." Austen's novels lack both the romantic abandon typical of the popular fiction of her day - which she was fond of parodying - and the broad historical sweep that characterizes the work of her famous contemporary, Sir Walter Scott. What Austen does capture in the carefully circumscribed worlds of her novels is the unchanging minutiae of human behavior, which, perhaps contrary to the author's expectations, has had the effect of fascinating readers since her first book was published in 1813 and making her one of the masters of the English novel.

In *Jane Austen*, John Lauber illuminates for the general reader and the student new to her work each of the six peerless novels Austen completed - *Sense and Sensibility*, *Pride and Prejudice*, *Mansfield Park*, *Emma*, *Persuasion*, and *Northanger Abbey* - as well as her two unfinished novels and juvenilia. Lauber clearly lays out the parameters that at least superficially define Austen territory: a desirous and desirable heroine and hero who are destined to marry (though not until they surmount many obstacles); an antihero who is charming but disingenuous and who serves as one of the obstacles to the union of heroine and hero; at least one fool, whose affectation, dullness, or vulgarity makes for comedy and sets off the intelligence and genuineness of others; and an assortment of provincial ladies and gentlemen.

The very presence of a stock of easily defined characters and situations has since Austen began writing been some cause for criticism. Lauber reviews the history of the response to Austen over the years: Sir Walter Scott's admiration for the "exquisite touch" that "renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting," the nineteenth-contury Romantic's disdain for her emotional restraint, the twentieth-century critic's respect for her craftsmanship and fondness for her verve combined with dissatisfaction with her tacit acceptance of the subordinate position of women and of the oppressive moral and social conventions of her time.

While thus acknowledging various views of Austen's shortcomings, Lauber is persistent in his appreciation of the reasons for her staying power. Each novel may be equally equipped with heroine, hero, antihero, and fool, but in every instance each such character is a full-fledged individual: the many fans of *Pride and Prejudice*'s Elizabeth Bennet will find the likes of her in no other novel. Austen's comic wit is irrepressible, her celebrated irony capable of bemused caricature and scornful exposure. Her dialogue is lively and her use of it at a time when the English novel was barely 100 years old inventive. Not to be discounted are her perception of human foible and vulnerability and her constancy in valuing genuine love and friendship. Such qualities have stood Austen and her heroines and hereos well, making her six "miniatures" abiding companions to many, many readers for nearly two centuries.