This is an excellent work on Austen's career as a professional writer. This was a new way to think about Austen in 1991 - as a determined career writer. Fergus is a favorite of Austen fans because she places Austen in professional context as a woman. Fergus draws connections between the female heroines of her juvenilia, who literally got away with murder, and the heroines of her mature works, who quietly break norms. Fergus signed the first free endpaper very kindly to Lorraine Hanaway in 2005, who nonetheless took issue with a section of the book on Austen's early writing; see penciled areas pgs 38, 43 44. St Martin's Press, NY. 1991. Hb, Dj. USED. $50.00