Humaniy's majors are down, historically, professorships are down. Let's dip into that coolete a little bit more of the humanity's cooleti it's some stem is on the rise. O, why take a class in in jane austen, is it just for the entertainment value? Learning about it doesn't have to be productive. Doesn't have to raise your salary. There a lot of reasons that are good reasons for doing things that aren't related to income. But what would yo, what would you say in defence english literature and studying it at the university leveln?"
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.