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University of Oxford professor and Jane Austen expert Professor Kathryn Sutherland has accused author Claire Harman of using her ideas without adequately crediting them in her new book about the author, according to the Telegraph.
Jane's Fame: How Austen Conquered the World, is due from Canongate in April; Canongate has described it as " a completely original appraoch to one of Britain's most popular novelists".
However, according to Professor Sutherland, Jane's Fame is similar to her 2005 academic study Jane Austen's Textual Lives: from Aeschylus to Bollywood.
Harman read Sutherland's book after the two authors met in the academic's home in Oxford shortly after its publication, Prof Sutherland said. She added that she was later distressed to discover that Harman was working on a popularised version of its theories, and the two have not spoken since.
Nick Davies, Harman's editor at Canongate, said that while Prof Sutherland's book was listed among the acknowledgements in Jane's Fame, he and Harman rejected the claim that it provided the basis for some of its sections. "Until we receive something on paper from Kathryn Sutherland, detailing where she thinks her ideas have been reproduced, neither I nor Claire can really say any more," Mr Davies said.