University Press Copublishing Division / Lehigh University Press
Pages: 194
•
Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-1-61146-227-2 • Hardback • October 2016 • $93.00 • (£72.00)
978-1-61146-229-6 • Paperback • May 2018 • $50.99 • (£39.00)
978-1-61146-228-9 • eBook • October 2016 • $48.00 • (£37.00)
Kathryn E. Davis is assistant professor of English at the University of Dallas.
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
A Beginning: Liberty in Jane Austen’s Novels
Chapter I: Reading Jane Austen’s Readings on Liberty
Chapter II: “Though alive, not at liberty”: Counterfeits of Liberty in Persuasion
Chapter III: The Ultimate Dichotomy: “Prudence” and “Romance”
Chapter IV: Towards the Free Movement of the Soul: the Rhetoric of Persuasion
Chapter V: The Limits of Human Liberty
Conclusion: England and Everywhere
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
In an age where single-author studies are rarely encouraged by publishers, Kathryn E. Davis’s concise Liberty in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion”demonstrates the undoubted value of this particular genre of monograph. Instead of focusing on the verbal art of Jane Austen’s oeuvre as a whole, Davis selects Austen’s final complete novel, Persuasion (1817), for analysis. The result is a theoretically informed specialist study that adds significantly to the growing body of research on Austen’s work. It reveals its author’s skill to unravel the complex nuances of Austen’s language.... Liberty in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” is a welcome and significant addition to Austen criticism, and it offers a degree of nuance in its readings that testifies not only to Austen’s skill at crafting the novel but also to the author’s ability to decode the multifarious and often complex meanings of Austen’s work.
— ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews
Davis's highly readable, well-researched book offers a fresh view of Austen's final complete novel by placing the work's discussion of liberty and personal freedom within the context of Enlightenment philosophical debates and religious traditions deeply rooted in the past. Literary scholars and laypeople alike will find much to admire in Davis's careful reading of Persuasion.
— Roger Moore, Vanderbilt University
In her monograph, Kathryn E. Davis contemplates nothing less than the freedom of the human soul. . . the book’s astute textual analyses and careful sourcing comprehensively detail the challenges and opportunities of inner liberty in Austen’s text. . . . Davis’s close readings justly celebrate the richness of Austen’s final novel. . . Liberty in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” excels as an addition to discussions of Austen’s rhetorical style, reading habits, and directions for becoming a happy and virtuous individual—ever a noble pursuit.
— Eighteenth-Century Fiction
Refreshing, clear, and convincing. Davis dialogues graciously yet incisively with contemporary critics and positions Austen’s Persuasion as an astute response to eighteenth-century philosophical theology and political thought. Fascinatingly, Davis takes up two writers whom Austen admired—Thomas Sherlock and William Cowper—and proposes their Christian concepts of grace, diligence, and fearlessness informed Austen’s ideas about liberty of soul. Davis illustrates how, in an age of revolutions, Austen consciously defined liberty in terms of practical wisdom, spiritual fortitude, active speech, and social responsibility. The result is an illuminating examination of feminine and masculine character growth and the attendant political consequences.
— Natasha Duquette, Tyndale University College
Davis's highly readable, well-researched book offers a fresh view of Austen's final complete novel by placing the work's discussion of liberty and personal freedom within the context of Enlightenment philosophical debates and religious traditions deeply rooted in the past. Literary scholars and laypeople alike will find much to admire in Davis's careful reading of Persuasion.
— Roger Moore, Vanderbilt University
Refreshing, clear, and convincing. Davis dialogues graciously yet incisively with contemporary critics and positions Austen’s Persuasion as an astute response to eighteenth-century philosophical theology and political thought. Fascinatingly, Davis takes up two writers whom Austen admired—Thomas Sherlock and William Cowper—and proposes their Christian concepts of grace, diligence, and fearlessness informed Austen’s ideas about liberty of soul. Davis illustrates how, in an age of revolutions, Austen consciously defined liberty in terms of practical wisdom, spiritual fortitude, active speech, and social responsibility. The result is an illuminating examination of feminine and masculine character growth and the attendant political consequences.
— Natasha Duquette, Tyndale University College