A Close Look at Austen's Genius: A Visit with
John Mullan
January 9, 2025
Happy 2025! This year marks Jane Austen's 250th birthday, and we are delighted to kick off the celebration with professor and author John Mullan as our guest. This month we delve into passages from the four novels published during Austen's lifetime and discuss what the details reveal about her genius as a writer. Join us for this fascinating and insightful episode with the author of What Matters in Jane Austen? and get a sneak peek at one of our plenary speakers for the 2025 AGM in Baltimore!
John Mullan is Lord Northcliffe Chair of Modern English Literature at University College London. Specializing in eighteenth- and nineteenth century literature, he is a frequent guest on radio and TV and lectures widely. He also writes on contemporary fiction for the Guardian and was a judge for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. John is the author of The Artful Dickens, What Matters in Jane Austen?, Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature, and How Novels Work and has edited the Oxford World Classics editions of Sense and Sensibility and Emma as well as a number of works by Daniel Defoe and Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Poets.
Many thanks to John for being a guest on Austen Chat!
Listen to Episode 19
You can stream this episode on your favorite podcast app and on our YouTube Channel. Or listen to the interview and read the transcript and show notes on our Episode 19 webpage.
