Rachel M. Brown­stein is pro­fes­sor emeri­ta of Eng­lish at Brook­lyn Col­lege and the Grad­u­ate Cen­ter, CUNY. She is the author of Becom­ing a Hero­ine: Read­ing about Women in Nov­els, Trag­ic Muse: Rachel of the Comédie-Française, and Why Jane Austen?