The Heirs of Jane Austen Twentieth-Century Writers of the Comedy of Manners

In 'The Heirs of Jane Austen', Dr. Rachel Mather provides a clear introduction and searching insights into the work of three British comic novelists of the early twentieth century who worked within the tradition of the social comedy established by Jane Austen. (Veronica M.S. Kennedy, St. John's University, NY) In 'The Heirs of Jane Austen', Rachel Mather offers an appreciative analysis of three writers who carry forward the comedy of manners tradition of Jane Austen into the earlier half of the twentieth century. In discussing the Lucia novels of Edward F. Benson, the Provincial Lady Diaries of E.M. Delafield, and the novels of Angela Thirkell, Dr. Mather convincingly places them in the Austen tradition. With a clear eye and level head, she demonstrates the many parallels in their use of language, humor, character, and social history. Popular when first published, the novels of Benson, Delafield, and Thirkell suffered an eclipse during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Rediscovered and republished in paperback in the 1980s, they once again proved popular with the reading public. Rachel Mather tells us why, and in doing so, establishes them in the larger literary tradition of the comic English novel. At the very least, Rachel Mather will entice the general reader, if not the mogul, into the witty world of E.F. Benson, E.M. Delafield, and Angela Thirkell. (Morgan Himelstein, Adelphi University)