This is one of those rare publications that combines the rigours of scholarly work with the seductions of witty and extremely readable prose. - The Conversation

Illuminating and at times even transformative.

Good Reading Magazine

This is an excellent book on the importance of books and reading in Jane Austen's life and works. Underpinned by careful research and insightful close readings of the novels, it clearly explains how understanding Austen's literary allusions illuminates her work in vital new ways.

Professor Katherine Halsey, University of Stirling, UK

Susan Allen Ford's scholarship on literary allusions in Jane Austen's novels has long informed critical reading of Austen's writing. With its focus on what Austen's characters read, this publication not only offers brilliant new insights into those characters but also insights into Austen's own reading and her deep critical familiarity with her predecessors and contemporaries. This book goes beyond those insights, however, to address, in graceful, accessible prose, Austen's relationship with her own imagined readers and her expectations for those readers, indisputably proving Austen's acute self-awareness of herself as an author and all that awareness implies.

Mary McBryde Mintz, President, Jane Austen Society of North America and Emerita Librarian, American University

What Jane Austen's Characters Read (and Why) is beautifully written, meticulously documented, richly illustrated, and full of original insights. It will appeal both to those who love Austen's novels and those with a scholarly interest in the subject.

Jane Austen Society of North America