Literature has always had the power to change – just think of the impact of the King James Bible, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Dr Johnson’s Dictionary, Marx’s The Communist Manifesto and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. And yet fiction too has the power to change – to evoke sympathy, to make us take on different opinions, and even to bring about political and legal change.

This talk examines ten novels which altered our world, when it came to race relations, charity, the shape of literature, and the plight of the poor and the different.

Discover which novels have had universal impact and be encouraged to think about which books you would select as having in some way brought about enormous change.

About Susannah Fullerton

Susannah Fullerton, OAM, FRSN, is a leading authority on 19th and 20th-century writers with a special interest in Jane Austen. She brings to life the lives and writings of great writers in her fascinating round of entertaining talks and is Australia’s most requested leader of literary tours around the world. She has been president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, the largest literary society in the country, for over 25 years.

She is also Patron of the Kipling Society of Australia, a founding member of the NSW Dickens Society and of the Australian Brontë Association. She is a Lady Patroness of the International Heyer Society.

Susannah’s books include her newest book, Great Writers & the Cats Who Owned Them, Jane Austen and Crime (the first ever study of crimes such as duelling, poaching, gambling, theft and even murder in the writings of Jane Austen), Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia (Picador, Australia, 2009), A Dance with Jane Austen: How a Novelist and her Characters went to the Ball (Frances Lincoln, UK, 2012), Happily Ever After: Celebrating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Frances Lincoln, UK, 2013) and Jane & I: A Tale of Austen Addiction (2017).