Jane Austen is renowned for the economy of her art: for the close focus of her romantic plots and the precision of her writing style. Exploring that economy stylistically and structurally, this book traces Austen's keen interest in narrative form. Anne Toner pinpoints techniques that are fundamental to the distinctiveness of Austen's fiction, many of which have been little explored to date. Toner argues that Austen's conciseness in terms of plotting, narrative description and in the depiction of dialogue also contributed to her innovations in representing thought, expanding the novel's capacity to depict consciousness. Narrative and rhetorical features are presented clearly and accessibly and will open up new ways of thinking about prose style with implications for the study of fiction beyond Austen's own.

‘… in each of her chapters on the formal features of Austen's style, Toner demonstrates how the effort of writing small worked to inspire some of Austen's biggest ideas and thus to shape nineteenth-century fiction.’

Megan Quinn Source: www.review19.org

‘This telescoping is well represented in discussion of Mansfield Park and of free direct discourse … the notes, bibliography, and index are extensive and provide welcome entry into the critical discussion around Austen studies and the 18th-century novel … Highly recommended.’

R. Shapiro Source: Choice

‘Explicating the very long history of critical reception of Austen’s exemplary, modern economy of style - its concision of plot for character, for example - Toner under-takes a detailed and thorough grammatical investigation of how exactly Austen achieves her fêted economy, and to what ends.’

Kate Singer Source: The Wordsworth Circle