Jane Austen's families

"This study is historically grounded, reading Austen in the context of contemporary writing and visual culture in an exploration of her treatment of the relations between parent and child. It examines Austen's heroines as their parents' daughters, responding to and resisting their upbringing, and shows how family interactions shape their courtships. Inevitably this concern involves a consideration both of the ethics of parenthood and of the ethics these heroines acquire from their parents, through adaptation, imitation and resistance to what they are taught, directly and indirectly. Interactions between parent and child affect both the daughter's experience and her active moral life."--Publisher's website.