Jane Austen's Books Are a Tribute to the Battle of the Sexes

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Students and all of us, tend to be anachronistic when we're looking at a work 200 years ago. Jane austen's books are a tribued to the way women use the limited power that they have. We judge in a way that has kind of no historically responsible context.

Author and professor Janine Barchas of the University of Texas talks about her book, The Lost Books of Jane Austen, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. The conversation explores Austen's enduring reputation, how the cheap reprints of her work allowed that reputation to thrive, the links between Shakespeare and Austen, how Austen has thrived despite the old-fashioned nature of her content, Colin Firth's shirt, and the virtue of studying literature.