What Matters in Jane Austen?: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved

By John Mullan

What are the right and wrong ways to propose marriage?
What do the characters call each other, and why?
And which important Austen characters never speak?

In twenty short chapters, each of which answers a question prompted by Jane Austen's novels, John Mullan illuminates the themes that matter most to the workings of Austen's fiction. Inspired by an enthusiastic reader's curiosity, based on a lifetime's study and written with flair and insight, What Matters in Jane Austen? uncovers the hidden truth about an extraordinary fictional world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jun 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781408828731

John Mullan

John Mullan is a professor in the English department at UCL. He writes the regular 'Guardian Book Club' column on fiction in the Guardian and frequently appears on the BBC's Review Show. He was a judge of the 'Best of the Booker Prize' in 2008 and a judge of the Man Booker Prize itself in 2009. He has lectured widely on Jane Austen in the UK and also in the US, and makes regular appearances at the UK literary festivals.

Reviews for What Matters in Jane Austen?

[amaliagavea · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Have you ever wondered why some characters in Austen's novels never utter a word? What is the importance of weather or blushing or sickness in moving her stories forward? If you have (and , perhaps, you haven't) you are going to find all answers in John Mullan's fascinating book. Enriched with passages not only from Austen's novels but also excerpts from her letters to her sister, Cassandra, it is a study that shows her writings under a new light.

John Mullan's What Matters in Jane Austen? is an extremely informative, charming book that deserves its own space in the bookcase of every Jane Austen afficionado and every lover of British Literature in general.

[liscarey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mullen gives us a wonderful trip through Jane Austen's novels, including the unfinished Sanditon, looking at obvious, non-obvious, and "I never thought to ask that!" questions about Austen's world, daily life, the behavior and relations of the characters.

What people call each other seems a simple and obvious detail, but it reveals a wealth of information about status in a class-conscious society, relationships between characters, and the formality that governed relations even between husband and wife. When characters violate the rules, it's not a throwaway detail. It reveals important information about the characters and their relationships. In Persuasion, Anne Eliot's sister Mary and Mary's husband are a rare case of husband and wife addressing each other by their given names. This isn't the norm as it is for us, or the sign of marital intimacy it is later in the 19th century. Instead, it's a symptom of the disrespect and frustration the couple feel towards each other.

Another aspect of daily life in Austen's world that's mostly alien to us now, where we don't have the same assumptions that Austen and her original readers did is in both the formality and the ubiquity of mourning. Strict rules governed what people could do and what they could wear when recently bereaved of their near and not-so-near relations and connections. Death was all too frequent, could come as the result of what started off as apparently a minor cold, and failure to observe mourning for family, connections, friends, etc., could cause offense and long-lasting ruptures between different branches of a family or formerly close friends.

This is a clearly written, engaging exploration of Austen's world, her fiction, and of what a daring and even experimental writer she was, creating major innovations in story-telling that are with us today.

If you enjoy Austen and enjoy going "behind the scenes" to see what makes a novel work, this is a fascinating, rewarding read.

Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

[isabelx_21 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

'What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant?' asks the narrator of Pride and Prejudice, in effect echoing Elizabeth's thought. There is nothing like the verdict of a servant, for the servants see everything, and we as readers should see them watching and listening.To start with I wasn't sure about this book, as the first 2 or 3 chapters seemed quite repetitive, as they kept referencing the same scenes from the books, but it soon got more interesting. The chapter that explained why everyone in Jane Austen seems to know exactly how much money everybody else has was especially fascinating, and other favourites were chapters about servants, right and wrong ways to propose marriage, and the significance of blushing in the books.Having re-read Northanger Abbey and Emma last year, I remember the details John Mullan describes quite well, and I am now planning to revisit some of the other books this year, while "What Matters in Jane Austen?" is fresh in my mind.

[daisyq-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really interesting if you love Jane Austen's works. This gives fascinating insights into life at the time Austen was writing, explaining a lot of things that her contemporary readers would take for granted. Mullan also explores Austen's technique and originality as an author.

The book uses examples from all Austen's works and from her personal letters. It's an easy read, not overly academic.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I'm not a big fan of Jane -- through I've come round somewhat on the subject since I couldn't resist the urge to fling Pride and Prejudice out of a window -- so you might think I was the wrong audience for this book anyway. But I am a big fan of close reading, and I find value in digging into what's important in an author's works in a way that I think the author of this would agree with, and I enjoy history, literary history, and all kinds of random facts. So I was hoping that though I'm no obsessive Austen fan, I'd still find this book of interest.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be quite sure where it's aimed at. As a non-fan, I don't know the books well enough for all the little details he references without fully contextualising to be exactly revelatory to me; as an MA in literature, I thought it was still a pretty simplistic level of analysis -- is anyone really surprised that yes, Austen was saying that Lydia Bennet had sex outside of marriage? -- and as a general reader, I didn't find the stuff that interesting on its own merits either. It startles me more that apparently there was a fuss kicked up about ~Was Jane Austen Gay?~ because of her intimacy with her sister than that sisterly conversation or the lack thereof is centrally important in her work.

Overall, whatever the target audience was meant to be, I'm not it.

[ma_washigeri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lightweight, slightly repetitive and thoroughly informative and enjoyable. Nice to get some proof (from an impeccable source) that of course Jane Austen knows exactly what she is doing - and how good and innovative she is.

After all, once you've read everything Jane Austen has written, read your favourites a few more times, changed your favourites over the years and read the new favourites over and over again, you do need something else to help refresh the next reading - and this does nicely.

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this work of literary criticism, Mullan writes about the works of Jane Austen, using a fine eye for details. What I really enjoyed about this book was how he would choose a topic of study for each chapter and then explore how that topic was touched upon in each of Austen's major works (as opposed to other literary critics who devote one chapter per Austen novel). He pointed out things and/or made connections that I had not previously noted, or had not noted the significance of when reading each book as a separate entity. Where Mullan did not succeed was in his "puzzles solved." For starters, many of the so-called puzzles are not at all "crucial" -- readers were not really dying to know who blushes when in Austen's novel. Yes, it is interesting that the women 'blush' and the men 'color', but the novels do not hinge on the readers noticing this. Furthermore, many of his chapters seem like he is trying to make a point but just doesn't. As my boyfriend put it, "twenty crucial puzzles solved" sells more books that "twenty nifty observations" even though the latter is more accurate.

[japaul22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this. Mullan takes different topics, techniques, etc. and talks about how Austen used them throughout her novels. I gained a lot of insight into her writing and will notice these as I reread her novels.Here are some of my favorite topics discussed. In "What do the Characters Call Each Other", there was some great insight into the meaning behind using first names, or last names only, or titles. He also points out what couples call each other. All of these are tied in to how Austen sets up plot points or characterizations. In "Why is the Weather Important", Mullan points out how Austen uses the weather to set a mood and also as a plot device - sometimes bring characters together and sometimes keeping them apart. In "Do we Ever See the Lower Classes" he points out that even when servants aren't named, much of the behavior of the main characters is influenced by their presence, which contemporary readers of Austen would have felt more deeply than modern readers do. "What do characters say when the heroine isn't there?" contrasts the different novels in terms of how present the main heroine is and how that presence or point of view shapes the novel. I also loved "Which important characters never speak in the novels" and the final two "When Does Jane Austen speak directly to the reader" and "How experimental a novelist is Jane Austen?" which spend some time placing her in comparison to other authors and analyzing the novelty and innovation of her writing technique. Overall, I really loved this and I could see dipping into again at some point. Only recommended for someone very familiar with Austen's novels, though. Mullan assumes you'll remember all the scenes and characters that he throws into every essay without giving any background.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Readers just getting to know Jane Austen's works or those who have been reading and rereading her for years will discover new depths to her work in the essays in this book. While the book includes background information on manners and customs of Austen's day, its primary aim is to analyze how Austen made such details serve a purpose in her work. Each chapter poses a question and answers it with numerous examples from Austen's oeuvre. “How much does age matter?” “Why is it risky to go to the seaside?” “Why is the weather important?” “Which important characters never speak in the novels?” “What do characters say when the heroine is not there?” “What do characters read?”The essays in this book have given me a deeper appreciation for Austen's skill as a novelist. I've learned new ways to approach her books as a reader. The book is suitable for both academic and general readers. Although each chapter can stand on its own, many readers will want to read the book from cover to cover. Readers who take the latter approach should be aware that there is some repetition between chapters, as some of the same passages are used to illustrate different points in different chapters. Highly recommended for all Austen enthusiasts.This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.