Jane Austen bookcover

Jane Austen

The Banker's Sister
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Description

When it was announced that Jane Austen would appear on the new £10 note in 2017, the 200th anniversary of her death, there was a flurry of media excitement. Few noted that a £10 Austen banknote was already in existence, albeit one issued by her brother. Henry Austen had set up as a banker in 1804, and built up a small empire of country banks. But Henry went unmentioned, and for good reason--he had gone spectacularly bust in the crash of 1816, the year before Jane died.

Versions of Henry appear throughout her novels, not least in the charming but unscrupulous Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park, master of the fashionable card game Speculation. In her last novels, Jane worked through her increasing doubts about the speculative mindset and the shock caused by the collapse of Henry's enterprise.

Exploring the close parallels between the speculative political economy of the late eighteenth century and that of the present day, Jane Austen: The Banker's Sister counters the stereotype of the spinster tucked away in a Hampshire village, detached from the great historical changes of her era. Based on wholly new research, including sensational new evidence of Henry's entanglements in the dissolute circle around the Prince Regent, this fascinating new volume will change the way Austen's life and her novels are understood.

E. J. Clery is Professor of Eighteenth Century Literature at the University of Southampton. An established expert, she frequently appears on radio and TV talking about Austen.

Product Details

PublisherBiteback Publishing
Publish DateOctober 17, 2017
Pages400
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconHardback
EAN/UPC9781785901768
Dimensions9.3 X 6.4 X 1.4 inches | 1.4 pounds

About the Author

E J Clery: E. J. Clery is Professor of Eighteenth Century Literature at the University of Southampton. An established expert, she frequently appears on UK radio and TV talking about Austen. She is the author of four books, including the bestselling book The Rise of Supernatural Fiction (CUP 1995).

Reviews

"E. J. Clery's calmly commanding Jane Austen: The Banker's Sister makes some enlightening juxtapositions of material from the Austen family so as to suggest fresh things about the more familiar biographical arc of the author herself. A critic attuned to the practical pressures and the imaginative possibilities of economics in the period, Clery would be a perfect read for those who cannot understand why Austen should be on the £10." Bharat Tandon, Times Literary Supplement

"In her marvellous new book, Jane Austen: The Banker's Sister, E. J. Clery focuses on Henry and takes stock of undervalued aspects of Jane as well... superb." The Hudson Review

"Jane Austen, The Banker's Sister held me enthralled [...] It's full of exciting new information about Jane Austen's banker brother Henry, and therefore Jane herself. The linking of brother and sister as optimistic, courageous, even speculative fellow-spirits offers new insights about the woman we thought we knew. Clery's genial, accessible, and original book is a must read." Jocelyn Harris, author of Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen

"Considering how central a role economic considerations play in Jane Austen's novels (and her life) I'm amazed that no one seems to have written a book on this topic, until now. This work is a valuable and fascinating addition to what we know about Jane Austen." The Jane Austen Project

"Clery's masterful and scholarly interpretation of Austen's family dynamics, political links, and financial successes and failures provides an interesting and fresh approach to the study of this illustrious novelist's life and legacy." New York Journal of Books

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