Here is an interesting article at the Guardian.co.uk about a new book on Austen by Claire Harman (author of the 2001 biography Fanny Burney) ~ Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World, to be published next month, and a conflict with the academic writings of Professor Kathryn Sutherland, author of the ground-breaking 2005 Jane Austen’s Textual Lives, from Aeschylus to Bollywood.  It’s quite the kerfuffle….

Further reading:

• Claire Harman’s site and more information on her book
• Kathryn Sutherland’s book at Oxford University Press, and a review in JASNA’s Persuasions

[Adding here 3/17/09:  I had noted in my comments below that Ellen Moody has addressed this issue in more depth on Austen-L and Janeites as well as her blog, so I add here the link to her post: 

http://server4.moody.cx/index.php?id=1016#comment

 NB: scroll down further on her blog as there is quite a bit more after the reference to Emily Hahn’s book on Fanny Burney]