Jane Austen: The Banker's Sister

Versions of Henry appear throughout her novels, not least in the charming but unscrupulous Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park, master of the fashionable card game Speculation. In her last novels, Jane worked through her increasing doubts about the speculative mindset and the shock caused by the collapse of Henry's enterprise. Exploring the close parallels between the speculative political economy of the late eighteenth century and that of the present day, counters the stereotype of the spinster tucked away in a Hampshire village, detached from the great historical changes of her era. Based on wholly new research, including sensational new evidence of Henry's entanglements in the dissolute circle around the Prince Regent, this fascinating new volume will change the way Austen's life and her novels are understood. is Professor of Eighteenth Century Literature at the University of Southampton. An established expert, she frequently appears on radio and TV talking about Austen.