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Courting Disaster

Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel

Zoë McGee

$49.99

Hardback

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English
Manchester Univ. Press
01 December 2025
What do #MeToo and Jane Austen have in common? More than you might think.

Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sharing ideas about sexual consent. Dr Zoe McGee reveals how Jane Austen, Frances Burney and their now-overlooked contemporaries used their stories to try to change society's mind about rape culture

and to reassure survivors they were not alone.

Courting Disaster takes a timely deep-dive into a series of classic novels, comparing them with both historic court records and current events to show that our arguments about consent are not a new phenomenon. With the wit and wryness of a courtship novel, McGee reads between the lines to unveil a quiet feminist movement that still resonates today. Because every novel about marriage is also a novel about consent.

In an era that's clamouring for a return to the values of the past, Courting Disaster asks what that would really mean, and whether anyone actually liked it back then anyway...
By:  
Imprint:   Manchester Univ. Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 216mm,  Width: 138mm,  Spine: 25mm
Weight:   487g
ISBN:   9781526188854
ISBN 10:   1526188856
Pages:   336
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Further / Higher Education ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Zoe McGee has a PhD from Queen Mary University of London and an MSt in eighteenth-century studies from the University of Oxford. She has spoken at conferences internationally and now performs at very nerdy stand-up comedy nights. Among other things, she has worked as a university teacher, a bookseller and a professional board-game-explainer. She owns too many books and is a competitive ballroom dancer in her spare time.

Reviews for Courting Disaster: Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel

‘Zoë McGee combines righteous feminist anger and flawless analysis, demonstrating not only how to read centuries old literature but why it remains so important that we do.’ Helena Kelly, author of Jane Austen, the Secret Radical ‘In this remarkable, moving and beautifully written book, Zoë McGee charts a new path – from the eighteenth century to the present – for stories of women and consent. Rarely have the novels of two centuries ago so jumped off the page and into our lives as in Courting Disaster.’ Devoney Looser, author of Wild for Austen ‘By turns witty, hard-hitting and compassionate, McGee explores how the eighteenth-century courtship novel from Samuel Richardson to Jane Austen anticipates and thoroughly illuminates our modern debates about sexual violence, victimisation, trauma, credibility and consent. Courting Disaster reveals the key role that writing and storytelling play in the ongoing battle against sexual violence, and convincingly demonstrates that literature can change our lives and better our future’ . Robert Morrison, author of The Regency Revolution 'With more memoirs being published regarding the treatment of young women by powerful men, this book is now more relevant than ever. What were authors in the time of Jane Austen, and Jane Austen herself, writing between the lines of their novels, taking a stand against similar issues?' Rebecca Williams, The Jane Austen Society newsletter -- .


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