Reception history of Jane Austen their class, instead of their moral failures being presented as a product of the social system. Writing about the work of Johnson, Irvine wrote that for her, Austen was a radical because it is women like Emma Woodhouse, Mrs. Elton and Mrs. Churchill who really run Highbury society, undercutting traditional gender roles, but Irvine questioned whether this really made Austen into radical, noting it was the wealth and status of the gentry women of Highbury that gave them their power. Irvine argued it was just as possible to see "Emma" as a conservative novel that upholds the superiority of the
Reception history of Jane Austen lifestyle, did not want to follow this suggestion, but her friends convinced her otherwise: in short order, "Emma" was dedicated to him. Austen turned down the librarian's further hint to write a historical romance in honour of the prince's daughter's marriage. In the last year of her life, Austen revised "Northanger Abbey" (1817), wrote "Persuasion" (1817), and began another novel, eventually titled "Sanditon", which was left unfinished at her death. Austen did not have time to see "Northanger Abbey" or "Persuasion" through the press, but her family published them as one volume after her death and her brother Henry included