Jane Austen: Writing, Society, Politics

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. So runs one of the most famous opening lines in English literature. Setting the scene in Pride and Prejudice, it deftly introduces the novel's core themes of marriage, money, and social convention, themes that continue to resonate with readers over 200 years later.

Jane Austen wrote six of the best-loved novels in the English language, as well as a smaller corpus of unpublish...