A Companion to Jane Austen provides a comprehensive survey of contemporary Austen studies while covering the full breadth of the novelist's work and career. Focusing on changing contexts and cultures of reception, the text provides groundbreaking new interpretations in more than forty essays by a distinguished team of influential literary critics and Austen scholars. Sections include: The Life and the Texts; Reading the Texts; Literary Genres and Genealogies; Political, Social and Cultural Worlds; and Reception and Reinvention. As a scholarly reference and comprehensive survey of the most innovative speculative developments in the field, A Companion to Jane Austen illuminates the power of Austen's novels to enchant readers.