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Author Barchas, Janine, author.

Title Matters of fact in Jane Austen : history, location, and celebrity / Janine Barchas
Published Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 317 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents "Quite unconnected" : the Wentworths and Lady Susan -- Mapping Northanger Abbey to find "Old Allen" of Prior Park -- Touring Farleigh Hungerford Castle and remembering Miss Tilney-Long -- "The celebrated Mr. Evelyn" of the Sylva in Burney and Austen -- Hell-fire Jane : Dashwood celebrity and Sense and sensibility -- Persuasion's battle of the books : the Baronetage versus Navy list
Summary "Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity makes the bold assertion that Jane Austen's novels allude to actual high-profile politicians and contemporary celebrities as well as to famous historical figures and landed estates. Janine Barchas is the first to conduct extensive research into the names and locations in Austen's fiction by taking full advantage of the explosion of archival materials now available online. According to Barchas, Austen plays confidently with the tantalizing tension between truth and invention which characterizes the realist novel. Of course, the argument that Austen deployed famous names presupposes an active celebrity culture during the Regency, a phenomenon recently accepted by scholars. The names Austen plucks from history for her protagonists (such as Dashwood, Wentworth, Woodhouse, Tilney, Fitzwilliam, and many more) were hugely famous in her day. She seems to bank upon this familiarity for interpretive effect, often upending associations with comic intent. Barchas re-situates Austen's work nearer to the historical novels of her contemporary Sir Walter Scott than to the domestic and biographical perspectives that until recently have dominated Austen studies. This forward-thinking and revealing investigation offers scholars and ardent fans of Jane Austen a wealth of juicy historical facts, while shedding an interpretive light on a new aspect of the work of a much-beloved writer."--Project Muse
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Subject Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Knowledge -- History
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Knowledge -- Geography
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Knowledge -- Genealogy
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Family
SUBJECT Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Family
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Knowledge -- Genealogy
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Knowledge -- Geography
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Knowledge -- History
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 fast
Subject Setting (Literature)
Names in literature.
Literature and history -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
Literature and society -- England -- History -- 19th century
setting (surroundings)
LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
Genealogy
Families
Geography
Literature
Literature and history
Literature and society
Names in literature
Setting (Literature)
History
SUBJECT England -- In literature
Subject England
Great Britain
Genre/Form Genealogy
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012000022
ISBN 1421407310
9781421407319