A Complete and Most Sensible Lady

It might be hard to believe, but when Charlotte Bronté published Jane Eyre in 1847, she hadn’t heard of Jane Austen.  She only became aware of Austen after a literary critic recommended that she read Pride & Prejudice—which she did in 1848.  Bronté reported back to him that she wasn’t impressed with the book and after enumerating its faults, wrote that “Jane Austen was a complete and most sensible lady, but a very incomplete and rather insensible woman.”  What did she mean?  What caused Bronté to criticize Austen so harshly?  Could she have simply misread Austen’s work?  This program will answer these questions and more as historian Kathy Wilson uses Bronté and Austen to help explain the importance of understanding historical context in literature. 

This program is co-sponsored by the Jane Austen Society of North America and the West Des Moines Public Library.