The Worlds of Jane Austen

Jane Austen Was Paying Attention. To Everything.

Forget the bonnets and the drawing rooms for a moment. Austen lived through revolution, war, and seismic social change — and her fiction, sharp and precise as it is, reflects every bit of it. The Worlds of Jane Austen is the guide for the reader who suspects there's more going on beneath the surface of those novels, and wants someone brilliant to walk them through it.

Helena Kelly — Oxford-educated, author of the acclaimed Jane Austen, the Secret Radical ("a sublime piece of literary detective work" — The Observer) — brings expert insight to the people, politics, and places that shaped Austen's life and work. Over 150 photographs, artworks, and illustrations bring her world vividly to life.

Whether you're coming to Austen for the first time or returning to her novels with fresh eyes, this is the companion that makes everything click into place.

Perfect For

• The Austen reader who has strong opinions about every adaptation and wants to go deeper
• Anyone who has ever felt that Pride and Prejudice is doing something more interesting than it lets on
• A gift for the literature lover who already owns the novels and is ready for what comes next