In the 19th century scholars looked at fancy, leather bound editions of books to look at howa author's reputation might rise and fall. What you've done for jane austen is tried to find as many of these less expensive editions. Thereare zillions of them. And what's interesting, of course, is that most of them should have been thrown away. Most of them were. They they were pulped for for a variety of reasons. It turns out that even cheap books for this new category of working class reader were valuable commodities or proud commodities.
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.