Reading Austen in America - Annotated by Juliette Wells (Paperback)

About the Book

"A vivid history of Jane Austen's American readers and fans, from her own day to the present"--

Book Synopsis

Reading Austen in America presents a colorful, compelling account of how an appreciative audience for Austen's novels originated and developed in America, and how American readers contributed to the rise of Austen's international fame. Drawing on a range of sources that have never before come to light, Juliette Wells solves the long-standing bibliographical mystery of how and why the first Austen novel printed in America-the 1816 Philadelphia Emma-came to be. She reveals the responses of this book's varied readers and creates an extended portrait of one: Christian, Countess of Dalhousie, a Scotswoman living in British North America. Through original archival research, Wells establishes the significance to reception history of two transatlantic friendships: the first between ardent Austen enthusiasts in Boston and members of Austen's family in the nineteenth century, and the second between an Austen collector in Baltimore and an aspiring bibliographer in England in the twentieth.

Review Quotes

A welcome addition to Austen scholarship, Juliette Wells' Reading Austen in America contributes to book history, history of the book trade, and reception history. Painstakingly following the first publication of Austen's in America-the 1816 Philadelphia Emma-through its various owners and readers over the next century and a half, Wells contributes to our understanding of the growth of Austen's international reputation. Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated, Reading Austen in America is a pleasure to read.
James Thompson, Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

More readers of Jane Austen live outside of Great Britain than within its borders; more Austen novels circulate around the globe than within the island of her birth. Juliette Wells' fascinating Reading Austen in America sets the standard for Austen studies for coming decades, as we begin to reckon Austen's influence and legacy outside of Britain. Wells handles with grace a blend of archival research, book history and delightful anecdote, reshaping as she does so many long-held assumptions about Austen, the novel and the commitments a reader makes.
Mary Favret, Professor of English, Johns Hopkins University, USA

About the Author

Juliette Wells is the Elizabeth Conolly Todd Distinguished Professor of English at Goucher College, USA. An acclaimed speaker and writer for popular audiences, she is the author of Everybody's Jane: Austen in the Popular Imagination (Bloomsbury Academic, 2011) and the editor of Penguin Classics' 200th-anniversary deluxe annotated editions of Austen's Persuasion (2017) and Emma (2015).