I’m pleased to announce today the cover reveal for my new book on Jane Austen’s creative process and her development as a writer. The nonfiction book, Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction: Six Novels in a “Style Entirely New,” can also be pre-ordered now from Jane Austen Books. It will be available in June.

The cover (see image) shows a woman in Regency dress looking toward the book title. Her gaze seems fixed on the phrase “Style Entirely New”—the words that Jane’s father used to describe some of her earliest stories. He may not have realized how new her work was to become, which is the subject of my book.

Is this image of a generic Regency lady, or might it be Austen herself giving a friendly glance at the analysis of her writing? Behind the book title in script similar to Austen’s handwriting is a passage from one of her novels: an Easter egg for readers to decipher. I think they’ll appreciate where the passage originates and its meaning.

Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction: Six Novels in a “Style Entirely New” demonstrates why Austen’s novels are unique when compared to other novels of her time. It demonstrates how Austen pivoted from superficial adventures to interior psychological studies, in the process showing how world-class fiction is built from the ground up.

This project took more than two years to write. Concerned that my own views, standing alone, may seem idiosyncratic, I spent many more months to bring in supporting commentary from major novelists on the art of fiction. To me, analyzing novels from a practical writing standpoint adds a new dimension—one a good deal less obscure, in many cases—compared with much contemporary literary criticism.

Rather than launch off into broad sociopolitical commentary, I stay within the works to show how Austen creates real people operating in believable contexts and how her wonderful effects with language make the experience enjoyable. Few people have written from the perspective of how radically different her writing was from other writers of the day. And different from many other writers for another generation or two!

Because all people exist in certain cultural and political situations, Austen’s realistic depictions of life give critics the opportunity to range widely in their interpretations of her novels. The danger is that scholars can move so quickly to bigger issues that they overlook the fascinating material directly before them in the text.

A Style Entirely New, as I think of the work, examines Austen’s creative process and her development as a writer of fiction from her first novel to her last. It treats her as a working novelist, one who overcomes the limitations of early fiction, figures out innovative narrative techniques, develops realistic behavior-based plots, and creates original methods to get into characters’ minds. What she learns becomes the foundation for English fiction going forward.

I’ve tried to make the book clear and relevant to a range of readers, from an Austen scholar to a student to anyone with a general interest in writing.

Among other things, the book provides a short and breezy history of the British novel up to her time. It shows, tongue in cheek, the pernicious effect of pompous Latinate writing, something Austen avoids. It shows how she took writing traditions, ranging from the gothic to the epistolary style, and early modes of characterization, and either discarded them or adapted them significantly for her own purposes.

Unlike some Janeites, who treat Jane’s novels as a matter of unchanging perfection, I point out the “apprenticeship” (Mary Lascelles’ word) provided not only by her juvenilia but also by her early novels. She’s figuring out how to write as she goes, and the evidence is clear if you know where to look. The most striking thing to me is how easily she deploys a technique in one novel that she struggled to learn in the novel only just before.

Judging from the reception of my talks, many of which stem from the ideas in this book, readers appreciate a fresh way to get into her novels. As I point out, a writer’s view of fiction is also a reader’s view. Writers, after all, are trying to reach readers, and this book shows in clear, practical ways how Austen reaches all of us.

Jane Austen Books has Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction: Six Novels in a “Style Entirely New” available at a discounted price during the pre-order period.

Next time: how my investigation into Austen’s creative process came about.  

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Don’t forget my fiction trilogy based on Austen’s life: “The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen” traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions. It’s also available from Jane Austen Books and Amazon.