"Backgrounds" supplies an abundance of documents that shed light on Austen's life and reveal some of her private attitudes toward her writing. "Reviews and Criticism" presents a wide variety of perspectives, both contemporary and recent, including essays by Sir Walter Scott, Henry James, A. C. Bradley, E. M. Forster, Robert Alan Donovan, Marilyn Butler, Mary Poovey, Claudia Johnson, Juliet McMaster, Ian Watt, and Suzanne Juhasz.  New to this edition are essays by Maggie Lane, Edward Copeland, and Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield, the last of which discusses film adaptations of . A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.