Today, Jane Austen is considered one of the most famous authors in British literary history, but her work was not widely read when first published in the nineteenth century. So what makes authors popular, and why does this change over time?
Drawing from her seminal work on Austen, Professor of nineteenth-century literature, Annika Bautz, examines the history of books and reading to explore the evolving influences around reading, writing and publishing that shape how an author’s work is received. She also shares her insight on how various cultures and countries have read the same texts in diverse ways, how the perceived value of texts shifts during social and political change, and who typically had access to reading in the first place.
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Inaugural Professorial Lecture as part of the Public Research Programme.
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