Reading Jane Austen After Reading Charlotte Smith

‘Labbe’s cogent, provocative, and challenging discussion offers an exciting, new

way of thinking about authorial interactions. Meticulous in locating so many

instances in which Austen and Smith speak to one another, Labbe persuasively

argues that critical recognition of the value of Austen’s writing needs, in turn, to

appreciate the forethinking present in Smith’s work.’

- Dr. Harriet Kramer Linkin, New Mexico State University, USA

‘A lively challenge to ideas of influence. It provokes and persuades. Written in a

refreshing and innovative style, it never fails to interest the reader. The works of

both authors are enriched by this study, which upends what we think we know to

reveal so much more than we realised.’

- Professor Sharon Ruston, Lancaster University, UK

‘Thought-provoking, insightful and accessible, offering a new approach to reading

women’s fiction of the Romantic period. Labbe makes a compelling case for ‘cowriting’,

for dialogue and exchange. This book not only sheds fresh light on and

Austen; it provides an innovative account of how women writers can productively

be read as engaging in conversation rather than competition.’

- Professor Fiona Price, University of Chichester, UK

This book explores what it means to read the six major works of Jane Austen, in

light of the ten major works of fiction by Charlotte Smith. It proposes that Smith

had a deep and lasting impact on Austen, but this is not an influence study. Instead,

it argues for the possibility that two authors who never met could between them

write something into being, both responding to and creating a novelistic zeitgeist.

This, the book argues, can be called co-writing. This book will appeal to students

and scholars of the novel, of women’s writing, and of Smith and Austen specifically.