A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the World's Greatest Novelist

Completing Juliette Wells' groundbreaking trio of books on Austen's readers, this latest volume revolutionizes our understanding of how Austen came to be viewed as the world's greatest novelist. Wells shows that Austen's global reputation was established not by British scholars, as is commonly believed, but by visionary American writers and collectors, working largely outside academia.

Drawing on extensive research, Wells weaves together colorful, compelling case studies of men and women who...