Designed for young adults, this book on Jane Austen's novels is one of an anthology series providing accessible resources for students researching great literary lives and works. Contributing writers' essays in the book are taken from a wide variety of sources and are edited to accommodate the reading and comprehension levels of young adults; each essay is introduced by a concise summation of the contributor's themes and insights. Following a biography of Jane Austen, the 20 essays in the book and their authors includes: "England in Austen's Time" (Fay Weldon); "Austen's Women in a Conservative Society" (David Monaghan); "Nineteenth-Century Criticism of Austen's Novels" (John Halperin); "Sex and Social Life in Austen's Novels" (Jan Fergus); "Humor in Austen's Novels" (A. C. Bradley); "Austen Portrays a Small World with Humor and Detachment" (J. B. Priestley); "Stylistic Devices That Create Irony" (Andrew H. Wright); "Games as a Device in Austen's Novels" (Alistair M. Duckworth); "Satire and Realism in 'Northanger Abbey'" (Norman Sherry); "'Sense and Sensibility' Has Little Irony" (John Odmark); "The Best Qualities of 'Pride and Prejudice'" (W. Somerset Maugham); "The Significance of Pictures in 'Pride and Prejudice'" (Tony Tanner); "'Emma': A Heroine with Faults" (Douglas Jefferson); "'Mansfield Park': The Portrayal of Quiet, Complete Love" (June Dwyer); "'Persuasion': Austen's New Kind of Novel" (Marvin Mudrick); and "'Persuasion' and the Cinderella Story" (D. W. Harding). Additional features of each book include an annotated table of contents to enhance comprehension and facilitate research, a chronology of the author's life and career as well as of concurrent historical events, and primary and secondary bibliographies offering a gateway for further research. (NKA)