Jane Austen & Her Genius: A Visit with Juliet McMaster

Professor Juliet McMaster, grande dame of Austen scholarship and one of the founding members of JASNA, joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the genius that is Jane Austen. We touch on all six of her published novels, dip our toes in her teenage writings, and take a stroll down memory lane with Juliet as we chat about the early days of JASNA and how it's evolved over the past 45 years. 

Juliet McMaster is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Alberta, a founding member of JASNA, and a frequent presenter at JASNA AGMs. As a scholar of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English literature and a specialist in Jane Austen, she has authored a number of books on Thackeray, Trollope, Dickens, and, of course, Austen, including Jane Austen, Young Author. She is also co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen and The Child Writer from Austen to Woolf. In 1994 Juliet founded Juvenilia Press, which publishes the early works of well-known writers. Her most recent book, James Clarke Hook, Painter of the Sea (2023), is a biography of her great-grandfather, the Victorian painter James Clarke Hook.

Many thanks to Juliet for appearing as a guest on Austen Chat!

Listen to Episode 9

Listen to the interview or read the transcript and show notes on our Episode 9 webpage, or stream the episode on your favorite podcast app. Austen Chat is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other streaming platforms.