"Harman's shrewd critical study, brimming with Brit wit, freshens up our impression of Austen—an enterprise always hampered by the overarching fact that Austen's life, like Shakespeare's, left behind few biographical fossils, not even a decent portrait.... With nimble steps, Harman dances through 200 years' worth of critical reception of Austen's novels, sharing the good, the bad and the brainless.... Harman's informed and elegant chronicle of the rise of 'Divine Jane' (as the late Victorians called her) is an eye-opener. The fact that Austen's posthumous success is also an affirmation of the ideal of a literary meritocracy—the notion that the canonical cream always rises to the top—makes Jane's Fame as happy a fairy tale as any of Austen's own novels."—NPR's Fresh Air