Includes bibliographic references.

Why we read Jane Austen : young persons in interesting situations / Susanna Clarke -- The radiance of Jane Austen / Eudora Welty -- Six reasons to read Jane Austen / Rebecca Mead -- Jane Austen : the six novels / E. M. Forster -- A life among the manuscripts : following in the steps of Dr. Chapman / Brian Southam -- Reading Northanger Abbey / Susannah Carson -- On Sense and Sensibility / Ian Watt -- From "Why we read Jane Austen" / Lionel Trilling -- Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice / W. Somerset Maugham -- Force of love : Price and Prejudice by Jane Austen / Martin Amis -- The nerds of Pride and Prejudice / Benjamin Nugent -- Austen portrays a small world with humor and detachment / J. B. Priestley -- Pride and Prejudice and the mysteries of life / Anna Quindlen -- A note on Jane Austen / C. S. Lewis -- Jane Austen and the good life / Louis Auchincloss -- What became of Jane Austen? / Kingsley Amis -- from "Jane Austen : Mansfield Park" / A. S. Byatt, Ignes Sodre -- The modest art of altering life / Alain De Botton -- Let others deal with misery / Fay Weldon -- Fanny was right : Jane Austen as moral guide / James Collins -- Why I like Jane Austen / Janet Todd -- Why do we read Jane Austen? / John Wiltshire -- The girls who don't say "whoo!" / Amy Heckerling -- Reading and rereading Emma / David Lodge -- from "Emma and the legend of Jane Austen" / Lionel Trilling -- The perfections of Jane Austen / Eva Brann -- from "The myth of limitation" / Donald Greene -- Terrible Jane / Amy Bloom -- Some thoughts on the craft of Austen's Persuasion / Diane Johnson -- Nothing but himself / Margot Livesey -- Jane Austen at sixty / Virginia Woolf -- Beautiful minds / Jay MacInerney.