Jane Austen and the Body
'The Picture of Health'
- Author: John Wiltshire
- Date Published: October 1992
- availability: Available
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780521414760
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Jane Austen has been thought of as a novelist of manners whose work discreetly avoids discussing the physical. John Wiltshire shows, on the contrary, how important are bodies and faces, illness and health, in the novels, from complainers and invalids such as Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Woodhouse, to the frail, debilitated Fanny Price, the vulnerable Jane Fairfax and the "picture of health," Emma. The book draws on modern theories of the body, and on eighteenth-century medical sources, to give a fresh and controversial reading of familiar texts.
Read more- Offers a new and challenging approach to one of the most popular and widely studied novelists in English literature
- Applications of medical history and theories about the body to literature are currently very fashionable
- Should provoke controversy among Austen's more conventional readership - likely to get good review coverage
Reviews & endorsements
"An original and satisfying study, written in a style graced by wit and clarity." American Library Association
See more reviews"...a fine book, informed and sensitive, and it throws a spotlight on an aspect of Austen's work all too rarely noticed." Juliet McMaster, Eighteenth-Century Fiction
"...Wiltshire possesses an exemplary grasp of recent scholarship in the history of medicine, while avoiding exaggerated claims for Austen as an interpreter of science and medicine. Not least, this engaging book displays a commendable capacity to analyze the role played by body language and corporeality in the early novel, while avoiding the mystifying jargon that scars so many literary studies of the body." Roy Porter, Isis
"John Wiltishire's analysis is both innovative and probing..." Judith Hattaway, English Language Notes
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×Product details
- Date Published: October 1992
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780521414760
- length: 268 pages
- dimensions: 224 x 144 x 25 mm
- weight: 0.47kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
A note on texts
Introduction: Jane Austen and the body
1. Sense, sensibility and the proofs of affection
2. 'Eloquent blood': the coming out of Fanny Price
3. Emma: the picture of health
4. Persuasion: the pshychopathology of everyday life
5. Sanditon: the enjoyments of invalidism
Notes
Bibliography
Index.
Related Books
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