This is a truly delightful conversation. John Mullan I knew, and that's how I arrived to this channel. I have to say, you were a fantastic interlocutor for prof. Mullan! Truly a pleasure to watch.

John Mullan is brilliant. Thank you!

What a wonderful and insightful conversation, reaching beyond Austen to Woolf, Murdoch and other topics. Original questions that pushed new perspectives. Thank you! As someone who majored in English, I loved it and have subscribed now!

This conversation was joyful and restorative! My thanks to both of you.

“Vanity working on a weak head produces every type of mischief.” There’s a line for you!

John Mullens is pure delight.

I’m so happy to hear your comments about the credit given to Flaubert for free indirect discourse!  My college French lit professor made that exact mistake in lecturing on Flaubert.  Then a year or two later, I first read Austen and immediately saw that she used “le style indirect libre” years earlier.  That was over 50 years ago and I still remember my puzzlement and indignation on Austen’s behalf.

Fabulous questions! Great discussion

I sill enjoy reading Austen in my seventies. Mullan has enriched my understanding of  Austen considerably.

I was taught English literature in France by a French Woman and since we had to study two languages we had to read translations of P&P in German French and Italian.  The teacher emphasised that Jane Austen was a novelist of the first rank in European literature, We concluded that of all the translations the one closer to Austen in narrative style and Temper was the Italian and thought the author closest to Austen in European Literature were Camus,  Stendhal, and Pavese.  But  the wife of a Russian colleague, she, in the English Department of Leningrad University thought Persuasion might have been Chekov and thought the BBC production with Anne Firbank as Anne, was the most Chekovian heroine  . The French being interested in Ideas thought that what made Austen so Modern was the influence of Kant through Coleridge, Austen taught Ethics.  To Mboya who was well read and knew Austen was of the opinion that what created the British Commonwealth were Methodism and Cricket and that the MCC rules of Cricket was the closest to the Spirit of the British Constitution. For him Mansfield Park was the most modern of Austen's work and the one closest to  Austen heroines in principles and autonomy and principles was Mrs Gaskell in Wives ad Daughter and North and South..  He thought tat the character of Susan Price was almost an anticipation of the question Nature or Nurture because Susan Price does not learn her standards, they were intuitive, profoundly Feminine. So  my Austen is, as it were through the Prism of France, Europe and an African leader who now has the distinction of having a University named after him. Mboya was a witty, profoundly contemporary figure. I  should have bee interested in Mboya's opinion of Edward Said's thoughts on Mansfield Park but he was assassinated much earlier. Kenya would have been a different country had Mboya lived, He is one of my few heroes,  DeGaulle liked Austen and so too  Zhou Enlai, others of my few heroes.  Austen would have been interested to meet  Darwin, Einstein, Von Heisenberg and E, M Forster and Ibsen would have been interested in Austen Heroines.  My lecturer in the History of Ideas in France mentioned Austen in connection with English Cricket and thought she would have found in English Cricket match a productive scenario for her style.
The best guide to the provenance of Jane Austen is a line she Could not have written appears in Mrs. Gaskell's 'North and South'  What time is your train?   Erich Heller, a specialist in German Literature though Fontane's Renate in Vor dem Sturm was the closest to an Austen Heroine as any. David Cecil  thought Cynthia in Wives and Daughters resembled Turganev.

Interesting conversation about Austen and other 19th century English writers.  Thank you for including unexpected topics.  I had to really pay attention.

Execrable….perfect description. Excellent erudite (in the best way) interview, very interesting.Thank you.

Wonderful and fascinating conversation!

I’ve just discovered the Theory of Things in relation to Austen’s writing. I lead a Slow Reading Austen book group, we read one book a year then rinse and repeat every 7th year. This is our 2nd go at Emma, so we’re focussed on the things in the novel this time around. (Our group is in Brighton!)

On Dickens and Austin:  In Martin Chuzzlewitt Mary turns down the disdainful proposal of Mr. Pecksmith with a speech very reminiscent of Elizabeth’s to Darcy’s first proposal.

Yes! 100% agree on Mansfield Park! Thank you!

Excellent interview!

46:00 "Because I have the profession I have, I have read..."

Thoroughly enjoyed

Ah, an hour celebrating the Blessed Jane....