This is one of those books that you will read with amazement, wondering how it is that Jane Austen seems to be si far ahead of her time in understanding the human mind. The essays in this volume interpret Jane Austen’s fiction through the lens of various sciences of the mind and brain, especially the cluster of disciplines implicated in the term cognitive science, including neuroscience, evolutionary biology, evolutionary and developmental psychology, and others. Austen is a popular author to analyze from this perspective due to her keen observation of how the mind operates in its interactions with other minds, both when it functions successfully and when, as often happens, it goes awry, and her perceptions are often in synch with current neuroscientific and psychological research. Essays deal with all six novels and her juvenilia, and look at historical context as well as current perspectives on her work within the sciences of the mind. William Nelles, Beth Lau, Alan Richardson, Wendy S. Jones, Kate Singer, Matt Lorenz, Bethany Wong, Patrick Colm Hogan, Kay Young, and Natalie M. Phillips co-written with eight other authors. First published in hardback in 2018. Routledge. 2020. Paper. NEW. $42.00