Leithart on James on Austen

One final link for today: Peter Leithart's essay on Jane Austen, Detective. He looks most closely at Emma. The essay begins:

P. D. James devotes a considerable amount of space to Austen in her autobiography, including biographical details about Austen and an appendix where she analyzes Emma as a "detective story." She notes that detective stories don't need to have murder, but only mystery: "facts which are hidden from the reader but which he or she should be able to discover by logical deduction from clues inserted in the novel with deceptive cunning but essential fairness. It is about evaluating evidence, whether of events or of character. It is concerned with bringing order out of disorder and restoring peace and tranquility to a world temporarily disrupted by the intrusion of alien influences."