JANE AUSTEN & HER WORLD with John Wiltshire

The older writers on Jane Austen often assumed that the settings of her novels were separate from the historical world she herself inhabited. Modern critics, however, have dispelled this myth. In this talk Professor Wiltshire will show how the influence of the Napoleonic wars and the Regency period can be found in Jane Austen’s novels and how, particularly with the later three novels written at Chawton Cottage, Jane Austen tackles some of the crucial questions of her era.

Professor Wiltshire has edited Mansfield Park in the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen (2005) and is the author of three books on Jane Austen. A fourth, The Cinematic Jane Austen, jointly authored with scholars in Canada and France, will be published this year.