One can’t say that the bicentennial of Jane Austin’s death has revived interest in either the author or her work, for interest in her books and life have never faded. But the occasion has produced a bevy of new books. We like these two.

 

What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan sets out to answer twenty pertinent questions about Austen’s books, including, “Which important characters never speak in the novels?” and, “Is there any sex in Jane Austen?”

 

Jane Austen at Home: A Biography
Worsley, Lucy

Lucy Worsley’s new biography, Jane Austen at Home, shows how and why she lived as she did, examining the rooms, spaces and possessions that mattered to her, and the way in which home is used in her novels to mean both a place of pleasure and a prison.