Jane's Fame is a story of personal struggle, family intrigue, accident, advocacy and sometimes-surprising neglect, as well as a history of changing public tastes and critical practices.

In a wide-ranging study aimed at the general reader, award-winning biographer and Oxford and Columbia University Professor Claire Harman traces the growth of Jane Austen's fame, the changing status of her work and what it has stood for.

Starting with Austen's early experience as an author, she goes on to explore the swell of public interest in Austen in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, her emergence as a classic English author in the twentieth century, the critical wars that erupted as a result and, her powerful influence on contemporary phenomena such as chick-lit, romantic comedy, the heritage industry and film.

'A deft, elegant exploration of the cult of all things Austen...a happy blend of critical insight and narrative bounce.' Guardian