Book: Jane Austen & Crime

Learn which of Jane Austen’s characters commit hanging offences, discover who fights duels and what the consequences were, find out what Austen knew of hangings and where she describes them in her juvenilia, and see how poaching is used symbolically in her fiction to brilliant effect. Adultery, elopements to Gretna Green, gambling, suicide, theft and imprisonment are all discussed. Jane Austen and Crime reveals Jane Austen’s personal responses to crimes and punishments in her day, showing why she visited a gaol after writing Mansfield Park, why she gave some of her characters careers in the law, how her approach to crime altered from the juvenilia to the mature fiction, and what she thought and knew of duellers, poachers, elopers and thieves.

This is an essential reference book for all who want to know more about Jane Austen and her world and writing.