Jane Austen and Education

by D.D. Devlin

140 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main focus of this book is Mansfield Park. I've previously seen opinions that relate Mansfield Park to the Vindication of the rights of woman, but this was far more in-depth and focused on the 18th century educational and moral thought that Jane Austen would have been familiar with. Mansfield Park happens to be one of my favourite JA novels, but I think that this book would be interesting for those who don't like it as well. It gives far greater understanding to why JA kept Mary and Henry Crawford from reforming, while taking the view that both were sincerely in love with Edmund and Fanny, respectively. I've personally never considered Henry to be truly in love with Fanny, but that doesn't alter the sense of what Devlin feels JA's motivation was.

I would highly recommend this to other Janeites.