Reception history of Jane Austen Critic" felt that Austen's exclusive dependence on realism was evidence of a deficient imagination. The reviewer for the "Edinburgh Review" disagreed, praising Austen for her "exhaustless invention" and the combination of the familiar and the surprising in her plots. Overall, Austen scholars have pointed out that these early reviewers did not know what to make of her novels—for example, they misunderstood her use of irony. Reviewers reduced "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice" to didactic tales of virtue prevailing over vice. In the "Quarterly Review" in 1821, the English writer and theologian Richard Whately published the most serious and
Becoming Jane Austen bedrock itself. His interpretation of Jane Austen’s character and personality as well as of her fiction impresses the reader with his long and intimate acquaintance with the writer and her works." A paperback edition of the book was published by Continuum on 14 June 2007 The Austen-Lefroy relationship was also used as the basis for "Jane and Tom: The Real Pride and Prejudice", a radio play by Elizabeth Lewis. It was first broadcast on 1 June 2007, starring Jasmine Hyde as Austen and Andrew Scott as Lefroy, along with Penny Downie as Mrs Austen, Jane Whittenshaw as Mrs Lefroy, Rachel