Sibling Love and Incest in Jane Austen's Fiction

At the end of all Jane Austen's novels, an innovative social and moral group emerges that closely resembles a fraternity or sibship. Dr. Hudson's book examines Austen's presentation of sibling love and rivalry in the context of the dramatic social and historical changes in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; and it does so in a way that proves to be of interest to both the general and the academic reader. The study also analyzes the incest motif in numerous works of the period and argues how the handling of incestuous themes in Mansfield Park , Emma , and Sense and Sensibility represents a revolutionary stage in the development of the English novel.