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An A-Z of Jane Austen
- Author
- Michael Greaney
- Narrator
- Jenny Dunbar
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 25 November 2025
- Run Time
- 7 hours 11 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Jane Austen's richly textured worlds have enchanted readers for centuries and this neatly organised, playful book provides Austen enthusiasts and students alike with a unique insight into the much-loved writer's way with words.
Using a lively A-Z structure, Greaney provides fresh angles on familiar Austen themes (D is for dance; M is for matchmaking), casts light on under-examined corners of her imagination (R is for risk; S is for servant), and shows how current social and cultural concerns are re-shaping our understanding of her work (Q is for queer; W is for West Indies). Through this approach, we learn how attention to the tiniest linguistic detail in Austen's work can yield rewarding new perspectives on the achievements of one of our most celebrated authors.
Sharply focused on textual detail but broad in scope it broaches questions that, like Austen's work, will intrigue, delight and inspire: Why are children so marginal in her storylines? Who is the best exponent of matchmaking in her fiction? Why are many of her female characters – but none of her heroines – called Jane? Providing a new close-up encounter with one of our most celebrated writers, this book invites a renewed appreciation of the infinite subtlety and endless re-readability of a body of writing in which every word counts.
Critics Review
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The 26 pint-sized essays comprising A Jane Austen A-Z are stuffed full of insights. Each is a masterpiece in miniature. Learned yet playful, Michael Greaney teaches readers new things about the forms and preoccupations of Austen’s fiction.
Deidre Lynch, Professor of Literature, Harvard University, USA
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A unique guide to the life and career of a much-loved author. … It sheds new light on key images, ideas, objects, people and places in Jane Austen’s writings. … This neatly organised book provides Austen enthusiasts and students alike with a unique insight into the much-loved writer’s way with words.
Lancashire Life
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Michael Greaney’s Jane Austen A to Z is a perfectly judicious and highly entertaining atlas of the great novelist’s life and writings. Each short chapter is an informative delight, from A for Accident to Z for Zig-Zag, in a book cleverly written both for those in want of an engaging first primer, as well as those who already know Austen down to a T.
Devoney Looser, Regents Professor of English and Global Sport Scholar, Arizona State University, USA
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Michael Greaney
- Narrator
- Jenny Dunbar
- Duration
- 7 hours 11 minutes
- Release Date
- 25 November 2025
- ISBN
- 9781350597242
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents An A-Z of Jane Austen by Michael Greaney, read by Jenny Dunbar.Jane Austen's richly textured worlds have enchanted readers for centuries and this neatly organised, playful book provides Austen enthusiasts and students alike with a unique insight into the much-loved writer's way with words. Using a lively A-Z structure, Greaney provides fresh angles on familiar Austen themes (D is for dance; M is for matchmaking), casts light on under-examined corners of her imagination (R is for risk; S is for servant), and shows how current social and cultural concerns are re-shaping our understanding of her work (Q is for queer; W is for West Indies). Through this approach, we learn how attention to the tiniest linguistic detail in Austen's work can yield rewarding new perspectives on the achievements of one of our most celebrated authors.Sharply focused on textual detail but broad in scope it broaches questions that, like Austen's work, will intrigue, delight and inspire: Why are children so marginal in her storylines? Who is the best exponent of matchmaking in her fiction? Why are many of her female characters – but none of her heroines – called Jane? Providing a new close-up encounter with one of our most celebrated writers, this book invites a renewed appreciation of the infinite subtlety and endless re-readability of a body of writing in which every word counts.
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