Jane Austen's Philosophy of the Virtues / Edition 1

by S. Emsley

Overview

This book examines Austen's novels in relation to her philosophical and religious context, demonstrating that the combination of the classical and theological traditions of the virtues is central to her work. Austen's heroines learn to confront the fundamental ethical question of how to live their lives. Instead of defining virtue only in the narrow sense of female sexual virtue, Austen opens up questions about a plurality of virtues. In fresh readings of the six completed novels, plus Lady Susan, Emsley shows how Austen's complex imaginative representations of the tensions among the virtues engage with and expand on classical and Christian ethical thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403969668
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	10/13/2005
Edition description:	2005
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

SARAH EMSLEY teaches in the Expository Writing Program at Harvard University, USA. She received her Ph.D. from Dalhousie University and spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford, UK.

Table of Contents

How Should I Live My Life? The Virtues According to Aristotle, Aquinas, and Austen Propriety's Claims on Prudence in Lady Susan and Northanger Abbey Sense and Sensibility : 'Know Your Own Happiness' Pride and Prejudice and the Beauty of Justice Fanny Price and the Contemplative Life Learning the Art of Charity in Emma Balancing the Virtues in Persuasion After Austen