Without renouncing his speculations on the historical emergence of the idea of the public sphere, Habermas’s later writings explore the potential of language itself, when oriented towards reaching understanding, to sustain public sphere values. Stressing transformation rather than structure, he sees such intersubjective understandings as the means by which social norms are maintained and critiqued. The works of Austen and her family show a similar eighteenth-century faith that society can be reformed by social means. Austen’s novels criticise restricted views of who constitutes society, use a common language, go beyond politeness in robust argumentation, and mediate between private and public in ways that answer to Habermas’s ideas. While the values of the public sphere are used to satirically critique society’s values and practices, Austen resists polarised antagonisms and Romantic pessimism, granting authority neither to unexamined traditions, professionalised ‘reason’ nor one class. Conversation is allowed to frame problems and, in the ‘utopian’ conclusions granted to principal characters, suggest solutions. Habermas might not deal adequately with non-verbal communication, but his concept of communicative rationality can be usefully applied to major aspects of Austen’s work.