To begin at the beginning: A talk by Professor Michael Wheeler

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Professor Michael Wheeler highlights how Jane Austen's genius, wit and economy shines through in the very first pages of her six published novels.

We tend to 'read for the ending', accelerating as we approach the denouement: who dunnit? or, whom did they marry, and why? But let's pause for a moment and look at the beginning. Michael Wheeler starts with some good and some very bad novel openings. He then homes in on the openings of Jane Austen's six published novels, pages that demonstrate her genius, especially her wit and economy, as she creates the 'world' of each work of fiction.

Michael Wheeler is a cultural historian of the nineteenth century and currently a Visiting Professor of English at the University of Southampton. He was Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University, where he masterminded the project to build the Ruskin Library and was the founding Director of the Ruskin Centre. He then helped to establish Chawton House library, lecturing on Jane Austen in many parts of the world, before going freelance in 2001. Michael contributed the chapter on her religious life to Jane Austen in Context (CUP) and wrote the pamphlet on Jane Austen and Winchester Cathedral (Winchester Cathedral). He has lectured in eighteen countries overseas, has served as a Lay Canon of Winchester Cathedral and is a regular contributor to the Church Times. His latest books are The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age: Loves, Lives and Letters of 1845 (Cambridge UP, 2023) and William Ewart Gladstone: the Heart and Soul of a Statesman for Oxford UP's Spiritual Lives series (2025).

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