Barkus: I always get called out by my students a sort of lie. They think that people in 18 11 couldn't possibly have tracked that literary illusion because they weren't in college or something. Whereas the opposite is, of course, true. These books would if because they were a relatively new genre still. And austin is doing something daring and new with her particular stories. That close knit zoom, that is really about a much larger issues than at first glance.
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.