This collection presents the best and most interesting criticism taken from the huge mass of critical material that has been written about Austen's work. Contents: Along with the usual critical apparatus, Volume I includes sections on Austen's life, publications, and the contemporary critical response. This is followed by nineteenth-century reviews and articles and concludes with a section of Writers on Jane Austen. Volume II focuses on essays on her social and intellectual background and twentieth-century studies of her works as a whole. Volumes III and IV are devoted to criticism of the individual works.