Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen

Jocelyn Harris

2017
388 pages
ISBN 9781611488395
Transits

In Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen, Jocelyn Harris argues that Jane Austen was a satirist, a celebrity-watcher, and a keen political observer. In Mansfield Park, she appears to base Fanny Price on Fanny Burney, criticize the royal heir as unfit to rule, and expose Susan Burney's cruel husband through Mr. Price. In Northanger Abbey, she satirizes the young Prince of Wales as the vulgar John Thorpe; in Persuasion, she attacks both the regent's failure to retrench, and his dangerous desire to become another Sun King. For Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Austen may draw on the actress Dorothy Jordan, mistress of the pro-slavery Duke of Clarence, while her West Indian heiress in Sanditon may allude to Sara Baartman, who was exhibited in Paris and London as "The Hottentot Venus," and adopted as a test case by the abolitionists. Thoroughly researched and elegantly written, this new book by Jocelyn Harris contributes significantly to the growing literature about Austen's worldiness by presenting a highly particularized web of facts, people, texts, and issues vital to her historical moment.

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Reviews

"Harris is well established as a guide to the wider thought-world of the author...In her latest book her expertise and questing curiosity are brought to bear on a set of themes that have not generally been associated with Austen."
-Emma Clery, University of Southampton; Times Literary Supplement (February 2018)

"New Zealand academic Jocelyn Harris's excellent Satire, Celebrity and Politics in Jane Austen published early this year shows what a keen political observer Austen was, and how her interest in the celebrities of the day, such as actress Dorothea Jordan and Sara Baartman (an African woman with very large buttocks who was exhibited in English freak shows as "the Hottentot Venus"), influenced and inspired characters in Austen's fiction."
-Susannah Fullerton; The Australian (July 2017)

"[T]his is a wonderfully rich and convincing presentation of much new material. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.
-CHOICE

"This book is an enjoyable one for anyone who has read Austen's novels or watched productions of them on television.... Jocelyn Harris is an excellent writer. For an academic study, the usual jargon and allusions to various post-modern theories are happily absent in this book. It is packed with detail and citations. It's is valuable for Cook enthusiasts because of its chapter on Molesworth Phillips, and the broader considerations surrounding the death of Captain Cook."
-Cook's Log

"Satire, Celebrity, and Politics is unfailingly fascinating in its dissection of Jane Austen, the satirist, and the text is enhanced by a well-chosen selection of contemporary portraits and gloriously scurrilous cartoons. The 'stories behind the stories' always make for an interesting read and Harris has produced a book that will be read with great pleasure by academics and devoted readers alike."
-Jane Austen's Regency World

"Jocelyn Harris' book, which reflects on the ways in which Jane Austen's work may have been influenced by what she knew about certain celebrities of her time, is a pleasant and accessible read...I would emphasize the thorough research into the socio-historical context that has gone into this book, and which makes it of interest to anyone who would like to know more of current events during Austen's lifetime."
-Rita J. Dashwood; The Jane Austen Society (Spring 2018)

About the author:

Jocelyn Harris is professor emerita at University of Otago in Dunedin.

Distributed by Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

Paperback: 9781611488449; eBook: 9781611488432