Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness

Inger Sigrun Bredkjaer Brodey is a professor of English and comparative literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is president of the Jane Austen Collaborative, a cofounder of the Jane Austen Summer Program, a regular host on Jane Austen & Co., and the principal investigator of Jane Austen's Desk.

List of Figures Introduction. "Perfect Felicity" 1. Commonplace Happiness 2. Expecting Literary Justice 3. The Limits of Romance 4. The Thin Veil of Comedy 5. The Art of English Happiness 6. Resources for Solitude Conclusion. Co-Authoring Happiness Acknowledgements Further Reading and Viewing Notes Index

Brodey's interpretations of Austen's writings are subtle and penetrating, and discussions of popular Austen film adaptations shed light on how Hollywood tramples over the novels' ambivalence. Austenites will want to take a look. -Publishers Weekly That Austen might be pushing her readers to separate the ideas of happiness and marriage in favor of introspection and self-actualization is a bold idea, but Ms. Brodey defends it with aplomb in this beautifully argued and original book. -Elizabeth Lowry, The Wall Street Journal Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness is not a book for hopeless romantics... Deploying tough love, Brodey reminds us that our desires are the consequence of getting confused between the countless screen adaptations of Austen and the original texts. -Kathryn Hughes, The Sunday Times [Brodey] deepens our appreciation of Austen's abiding genius. -Rachel Mann, Church Times Brodey has written one of the most stimulating commentaries on Austen's narrative methods that I've read in a long time. -Maggie Lane, Jane Austen Society News Letter