Never has contemporary fiction been more widely discussed and passionately analysed; recent years have seen a huge growth in the number of reading groups and in the interest of a non-academic readership in the discussion of how novels work. Drawing on his weekly Guardian column, 'Elements of Fiction', John Mullan examines novels mostly of the last ten years, many of which have become firm favourites with reading groups. He reveals the rich resources of novelistic technique, settingrecent f...

"An Austen lover's greatest wish is for more of her novels. This intimate guide to the world of her books in the next best thing." ― The AtlanticWhich important Austen characters never speak? Is there any sex in Austen? What do the characters call one another, and why? What are the right and wrong ways to propose marriage? In What Matters in Jane Austen?, John Mullan shows that we can best appreciate Austen's brilliance by looking...

'I wonder what will become of her!' So speculate the friends and neighbours of Emma Woodhouse, the lovely, lively, wilful,and fallible heroine of Jane Austen's fourth published novel. Confident that she knows best, Emma schemes to find a suitable husband for her pliant friend Harriet, only to discover that she understands the feelings of others as little as she does her own heart. As Emma puzzles and blunders her way through the mysteries of her social world, Austen evokes...

'Pray, pray be composed,' cried Elinor, 'and do not betray what you feel to every body present. Perhaps he has not observed you yet.' For Elinor Dashwood, sensible and sensitive, and her romantic, impetuous younger sister Marianne, the prospect of marrying the men they love appears remote. In a world ruled by money and self-interest, the Dashwood sisters have neither fortune nor connections. Concerned for others and for social proprieties, Elinor is ill-equipped to compete...

With a special emphasis on the exchange of land between medieval servile tenants—especially from the 13th century onward—this scholarly examination of the peasant land market of the Middle Ages explores the identification of peasant families with particular lands to which they had a hereditary right. Using this theme to explore village life and showing how peasants were affected by the changes over time and place, this study employs primary source material from the Winchester estates. Anal...

Some of the greatest works in English literature were first published without their authors' names. Why did so many authors want to be anonymous--and what was it like to read their books without knowing for certain who had written them? In Anonymity, John Mullan gives a fascinating and original history of hidden identity in English literature. From the sixteenth century to today, he explores how the disguises of writers were first used and eventually penetrated, how anonymity teas...

We're treating mental health backwards. Billions are poured into downstream fixes-fitness, nutrition, therapy, medication, mindfulness apps-yet the crisis keeps getting worse.Why? Because we're skimming rubbish off the surface whilst the pollution keeps pouring in from upstream.The source is mentality-the way you think, feel, and respond to life. Until we fix that first, nothing else holds.Most people don't own their mentality. They're living scripts written...

This volume documents the literary controversy and debate over Samuel Richardson's novel, "Pamela", published in 1741. It brings together and reprints key sources within the debate, including artists such as Francis Hayman, Hubert Gravelot, Joseph Highmore and Philip Mercer.

'If a man is to write A Panegyrick, he may keep vices out of sight; but if he professes to write A Life, he must represent it really as it was.' In the last of his major writings, Samuel Johnson looked back over the previous two centuries of English Literature in order to describe the personalities as well as the achievements of the leading English poets. The major Lives - of Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Pope - are memorable cameos of the life of ...

This volume documents the literary controversy and debate over Samuel Richardson's novel, "Pamela", published in 1741. It brings together and reprints key sources within the debate, including artists such as Francis Hayman, Hubert Gravelot, Joseph Highmore and Philip Mercer.

Elizabeth Gaskell, like her contemporary Emily Bronte, was from the north of England, though based in Lancashire and Cheshire rather than Yorkshire. Her first novel, Mary Barton (1848) was set in the north and was unusually realistic in its depiction of Manchester working-class life. Ruskin grew up in suburban London; in later life, he settled in the Lake District . Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle moved in the opposite direction - from rural Scotland to London's Cheyne Walk. This title focus...

Roxana (1724), Defoe's last and darkest novel, is the autobiography of a woman who has traded her virtue, at first for survival, and then for fame and fortune. Its narrator tells the story of her own `wicked' life as the mistress of rich and powerful men. A resourceful adventuress, she is also an unforgiving analyst of her own susceptibilities, who tells us of the price she pays for her successes. Endowed with many seductive skills, she is herself seduced: by money, by dreams of r...