It’s two hundred years since Jane Austen died at the age of only 41. The bicentenary will be commemorated all year with events, conferences, festivals and of course books.

We spoke to two writers about Austen’s legacy and her influence on them – and on so many of us.

 

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Our guests

Alison Goodman’s most recent novel is The Dark Days Pact, the second in the Lady Helen trilogy of supernatural Regency adventures. The first book, The Dark Days Club, was an NPR Best Book of 2016, and the third volume is on the way.

Alison is also the author of the award winning and New York Times bestselling duology EON and EONA, Singing the Dogstar Blues and an adult thriller, A New Kind of Death.

You can read about Alison’s Regency research on her website.

 

 

Kylie Mirmohamadi is a researcher at La Trobe University who specialises in cultural and literary studies. She has written extensively on literary sensations from Lady Audley’s Secret to Dickens to Harry Potter.

Her book The Digital Afterlives of Jane Austen: Janeites at the Keyboard, looks at the world of online Jane Austen fan fiction.

 

 

 

 

Jane Austen was born in 1775 and her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published in 1811, followed in quick succession by Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously.

Austen 200 events include:

• Immortal Austen conference, Flinders University, July 2017
• Chawton House exhibitions and events
• Jane Austen Society of Australia bicentenary events
• Jane Austen Society of the UK conference
• Jane Austen Society of North America events.