New book soon to be published:  A Companion to Jane Austen (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture), edited by Claudia L. Johnson and Clara Tuite [Blackwell, 2009], described as follows at Blackwell.com:  a comprehensive survey of contemporary Austen studies while covering the full breadth of the novelist’s work and career. Focusing on changing contexts and cultures of reception, this work provides groundbreaking interpretations in more than forty essays by a distinguished team of influential literary critics and Austen scholars. Sections include: The Life and the Texts; Reading the Texts; Literary Genres and Genealogies; Political, Social and Cultural Worlds; and Reception and Reinvention. As a scholarly reference and comprehensive survey of the most innovative speculative developments in the field, A Companion to Jane Austen illuminates the power of Austen’s novels to enchant readers.”  Priced at a hefty $199.95… you can pre-order before its official publication at the end of January.

And not to be confused with the four other “companion” titles, also all “essential Austen”:

• The Jane Austen Companion, edited by J. David Grey, A. Walton Litz, and Brian Southam [Macmillan, 1986]
• The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster [Cambridge, 1997]
• Jane Austen: a Companion, by Josephine Ross [John Murray, 2002]
• The Jane Austen Companion. a 1996 DVD of popular music from Austen’s times by Haydn, Fasch, J.C. Bach, Boyce, Schubert and others.