What Matters in Jane Austen?

I recently wrote about my favourite history book, Power and Glory. This month I would like to discuss my favourite work of literary criticism.

Some literary criticism can be extremely dry and academic. The author seems to feel that he or she should never use a few clear and simple words when they can instead construct a long and convoluted sentence, full of such words as ‘hermeneutics’ and ‘exegesis’. But really good literary criticism does not need to be obscure. This is the case with Professor John Mullan’s wonderful book, published in 2012, called What Matters in Jane Austen?: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved.

Mullan examines some of the puzzles that Jane Austen sets her readers, helping us notice the little tricks she uses as a novelist, the ways in which she manipulates her readers, and the extraordinary depths of her genius as a writer. His chapters are a delight to read – clear, insightful, thought-provoking and rich in detail. He’s the very best sort of literary critic.

The twenty puzzles include a variety of themes within Austen’s fiction, and examine, through the small details, just how daring she was as a novelist and what virtuosity she displayed. Chapters examine the games her characters play, where we might find scenes where only men are present, what names the characters use with each other (for example, there’s only one married woman in all the novels who addresses her husband by his Christian name – Mary Musgrove of Persuasion), which characters share bedrooms or coaches, why the weather is important, the risks of travelling to the seaside in Jane Austen’s world, how much money is enough, and what blunders are made and when. Virginia Woolf once stated of Jane Austen that “of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness”. Well, John Mullan attempts to do just that, and he succeeds magnificently.

Sometimes I read a book and feel truly envious of the author who wrote it. I am very proud of my own critical books about Jane Austen but, oh how much I wish I had written this book! It is an essential purchase for anyone who hopes to really understand Austen’s novels and is a book I return to again and again.

John Mullan’s most recent book is also one I can recommend. The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist illuminates Dickens for us with dexterity and clarity. I hope John Mullan will continue to produce books of literary criticism. He is the best!