Tandon (English, Emmanuel College, Cambridge) bases his study of Austen on the interesting fact that she wrote at a time when confidence in conversation as a tool for moral improvement was being undermined by the suspicion that it could also be deceitful and misleading. Tandon explores activities such as flirtation and ventriloquism to show how Austen's novels describe and strive to achieve conversational morality. He also surveys readers' reactions to Austen from the 19th century to the present day in order to investigate the possibilities and limitations of ethical criticism. Distributed in the US by Stylus. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)