Jane Austen enjoyed and was greatly interested in the theatre. Many of her novels, with their memorable individual characters, dramatic confrontations and surprising denouements, owe part of their effect to theatrical inspiration. The dra-matic impact of her novels is demonstrat-ed by the ease with which they have been adapted for television and film. In Jane Austen and the Theatre Paula Byrne makes clear the important part the theatre played in both Jane Austen's life and work.

There is no doubt about Jane Austen's own passion for the stage. She went to the theatre in London and Bath whenever she could, acted in private theatricals, and wrote a number of her early works in play form. Living in a great age of English stage comedy, she drew inspiration from Sheridan as well as Shakespeare. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Mansfield Park are, as Paula Byrne shows, all shaped by the comic drama of the period and by Jane Austen's own understanding of men and women as actors playing parts.