In Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity, Janine Barchas makes the bold assertion that Jane Austen's novels allude to actual high-profile politicians and contemporary celebrities as well as to famous historical figures and landed estates. Barchas is the first scholar to conduct extensive research into the names and locations in Austen's fiction by taking full advantage of the explosion of archival materials now available online. According to Barchas, Austen plays confidently with the tension between truth and invention that characterises the realist novel. Of course, the argument that Austen deployed famous names presupposes an active celebrity culture during the Regency, a phenomenon recently accepted by scholars. The names Austen plucks from history for her protagonists (Dashwood, Wentworth, Woodhouse, Tilney, Fitzwilliam, and many more) were immensely famous in her day. She seems to bank upon this familiarity for interpretive effect, often upending associations with comic intent. Barchas re-situates Austen's work closer to the historical novels of her contemporary Sir Walter Scott and away from the domestic and biographical perspectives that until recently have dominated Austen studies. This forward-thinking and revealing investigation offers scholars and ardent fans of Jane Austen a wealth of historical facts, while shedding an interpretive light on a new aspect of the beloved writer's work.
Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: ""History, real solemn history"" in Austen 1. ""Quite unconnected"": The Wentworths and Lady Susan 2. Mapping Northanger Abbey to Find ""Old Allen"" of Prior Park 3. Touring Farleigh Hungerford Castle and Remembering Mis Tilney-Long 4. ""The Celebrated Mr. Evelyn"" of Silva in Burney and Austen 5. Hell-Fire Jane: Dashwood Celebrity and Sense and Sensibility 6. Persuasion's Battle of the Books: Baronetage versus Navy List Afterword: Jane Austen's Fictive Network Notes Index
""Like a thrilling detective story, Barchas's study consistently and pleasurably overcomes the incredulity and skepticism it provokes. Besides inspiring serious and sustained reassessment of Austen's novels, Barchas's findings may also lead us to re-examine long settled conclusions regarding the dates of Austen's compositions and revisions... One hopes that Barchas's method might be usefully applied to Austen's contemporaries in order to further evaluate the relationships between 'matters of fact' and the period's fiction.""
