'Enit Steiner's magisterial overview of the criticism on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Persuasion will be of enormous value to every reader of these novels. With clarity, perception and deep insight, she tracks the responses to these two novels from Austen's relatives and contemporaries through 19th and 20th century criticism up to the present moment, taking into account the theoretical ... Read moreapproaches of historical, formalist, psychoanalytic, feminist and sexuality studies. The range and sophistication of her summaries of this criticism is superb.' - Anne Mellor, University of California, Los Angeles, USA 'Steiner's singular achievement is her identification of readers' critical concerns and preoccupations with the novels that ebb and flow, transform and develop, through the ages to the present, providing threads of inquiry both useful and fascinating.' - Allen Reddick, University of Zurich, Switzerland 'This timely and insightful guide is an invaluable source for teaching the history of criticism of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.' - Annika Bautz, University of Plymouth, UK Show Less