Pictures of perfection
Dr. Emma Major looks at the ways in which Austen encourages us to be suspicious of perfection, and to become better readers of character. Indeed the case could be made that Austen’s fiction offers the reader a first-rate lesson in detective skills. Dr. Major (University of York) investigates Austen’s lifelong fascination with letters to show how Austen uses them to teach her heroines to become better readers of flawed human nature.