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

Revolutionizing our understanding of how Britain's best-loved novelist entered the canon, this book asserts that her enduring literary significance originated not in the UK but in America. 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, from the 1880s to the 1980s, helped readers appreciate Austen’s novels, persuasively advocated for her place in the literary canon, and preserved artifacts vital to her legacy.Engagingly written and abundantly illustrated, A New Jane Austen will inform and delight scholars and Austen fans alike.