Quillette Podcast The Genius of Jane Austen
Dec 17, 2025
Join John Mullan, a Jane Austen scholar from University College London, in a delightful exploration of Austen's literary genius. Mullan highlights her daring narrative techniques, including free indirect style, as demonstrated in 'Persuasion.' He reveals how Austen's unique insights into marriage and societal norms, particularly through characters like Charlotte Lucas, expose the economic pressures of her time. Mullan also emphasizes her skill in character portrayal and reader engagement, all packaged in her deceptively simple prose.
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Austen's Narrative Breakthrough
- Jane Austen pioneered free indirect style, filtering narration through characters' consciousness rather than an omniscient author.
- This makes her novels quietly experimental and demands active attention from the reader.
Tiny Words, Big Psychological Work
- Austen makes plot and psychology interdependent, using characters' self-deception as narrative fuel.
- Small modal words like "must" reveal characters' internal persuasion and drive the scene.
Irony As Structural Device
- Austen often ends passages with ironic or misleading statements that belong to a character's viewpoint.
- These reversals reward re-reading and reveal her formal daring.