Economics for Lovers of Literature

This book provides an engaging introduction to economics through a literary lens. Drawing on writers such as James Joyce, George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell, each chapter is framed around a quote from a classic text of English literature that helps tease out a key economic concept and demonstrate its broader relevance. While rigorous, the book is virtually free of technical language and aims to give a concise overview of all the main topics in contemporary economics - from supply and demand, pricing, labour markets, externalities, and game theory, to environmental and behavioural economics, fiscal policy and business cycles, modern approaches to macroeconomics and economic growth.

Interweaving literary examples with easy-to-follow explanations and reflective tasks, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach to economics and literature that requires no prior knowledge in either camp, but which illuminates patterns of real-world behaviour observed by novelists and economists alike. This concise and accessible book will be a valuable tool for students embarking on introductory economics courses, economics modules in business studies, and interdisciplinary courses more broadly, as well as the general reader interested in building their knowledge of economics.

1. Introduction. - 2. The Price of Oysters (demand and supply). - 3. When You ve Got to Go, You ve Got to Go (pricing). - 4. The Competition is Tough (perfect competition). - 5. Why Trade is Good 1 (economic welfare). - 6. Last Copy, Sir: Double Price (monopoly). - 7. The Kursaal Flyers (game theory and oligopoly). - 8. Gizza Job (labour markets). - 9. Greta s Expectations (externalities and the environment). - 10. Why Trade is Good 2 (international trade). - 11. Well, What Do You Know? (information economics). - 12. Don t Behave Like That (behavioural economics). - 13. The Swings and Roundabouts of Outrageous Fortune (business cycles). - 14. If It Moves, Tax It (fiscal policy). - 15. The Employers and the Employed (unemployment). - 16. Interesting Times (monetary policy). - 17. From Small Things, Big Things Come (modern approaches to macroeconomics). - 18. Growing Pains (economic growth).