Use of Dialogue in Jane Austen’s Novels

What makes Jane Austen’s use of dialogue so unique? Professor John Mullan, editor of the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Sense and Sensibility, discusses how Austen’s characterization shines through in her use of dialogue and speech.

John Mullan is Professor of English at University College London. He has previously edited editions of Daniel Defoe's Roxana (2008) and Samuel Johnson's The Lives of the Poets for Oxford World's Classics. He is the author of What Matters in Jane Austen? (Bloomsbury, 2012), Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature (Faber & Faber, 2008), and How Novels Work (OUP, 2006).

© Oxford University Press