This new work investigates the role that dissident comedy plays in Austen’s writings. Using sexuality as a lens upon circa-1800 literary culture, this book emphasizes the physical life of Austen’s heroines, and contributes to recent analyses of popular culture and material history. Heydt-Stevenson argues that Austen’s novels explore the physical, erotic, humorous, and sometimes tragically funny connotations of popular literature and commonplace books; of clothing, jewelry, and crafts; of travel and tourism. Through an examination of Austen’s humor and linguistic patterns, this book interrogates the stereotypes of women authors as culturally inhibited, and shows how Austen addressed as sophisticated and worldly an audience as Byron's. Through her careful reading of all the Austen texts in light of the language of eroticism, both traditional and contemporary, Heydt-Stevenson re-evaluates Austen's audience, the novels, and her role as a writer.

Jill Heydt-Stevenson is Assistant Professor of English in the departments of English and Comparative Literature/Humanities, University of Colorado, Boulder.