For many readers Jane Austen is the quintessential English author. Jane Austen sets out to explore the history of this identification with Englishness in the context of a tradition of criticism that has frequently tried to achieve the reverse: to establish her difference, and distance, from
'us'. Rather than simply showing how she differs from the 'heritage' Austen, Robert Miles argues that many of the reasons for Austen's construction as an English Cultural icon are to be found in the works' formal qualities, and often in her most innovative techniques.