Jane Austen: A Life

This book is very valuable for a Jane Austen enthusiast, such as myself. It has brought Jane to life in ways I hadn't realized previously, a thorough, engaging study, to be sure. Its family tree note is part of its very valuable note-system, with its detailed indexing is also to be praised. I only objected to some of Claire's views of Jane's characters, so a reader needs to be prepared for some possibly disputable comments in that respect. Describing Fannie Price in Mansfield Part as a "prig" is a serious misunderstanding of that character, in my view, as one example. But this is minor against the extensive and well-arranged bio--strongly recommended. It was also interesting to read what people close to her thought of her stories, with Emma not doing so well against Pride and Prejudice, whereas Emma is now likely her masterpiece. This study also redoubles the understanding that Jane was a forerunner into modern realism, and as fine a writer as we're likely to find.

This book tells the story of Jane Austen and her extended family in great detail, perhaps too much for some tastes. The lengthy history of her relative Philadelphia, for instance, serves no doubt to compensate for the loss of so much of Jane's own life occasioned by the burning of her letters. But really there is far, far too much about cousins and aunts, although the connection of them to Warren Hastings is of some interest. A few paragraphs are even given to an aunt whose existence may have been unknown to Jane. One other fault I find, and this may be a fault of mine rather than of the biographer: It is very difficult to keep track of all her brothers. It does not help that the half dozen of them all had commonplace names like Charles, Edward, and James. A few Lloyds or Adams would alert the reader that a different brother had entered the scene. But the biographer is scarcely responsible for the names. Perhaps a bit of differentiation, a word or two now and then, would have been helpful. With all that said, I nonetheless found that the book gives a thorough insight into Jane's life and the influences that led to her novels. It gives a real understanding of her way of conceiving her plots. They came into her mind without nudging from outside. The material, the settings may be taken from the countryside in which she grew up and from the towns with which she was closely connected as a frequent visitor. And the mannerisms and habits of her characters may use actual friends, relatives, and acquaintances as models. But as the author states in chapter 24, none of those people make a recognizable appearance in her books. "The world of her imagination was separate and distinct from the world she inhabited". But "what she did depend on was specific working conditions which allowed her to abstract herself" from the world around her. These conditions were taken from her in her twenty-fifth year when her elderly parents abruptly decided to retire to Bath, a fashionable city which left her alienated, torn from the familiar routine and the quiet surroundings where she could placidly ruminate on her themes and flesh out her creations. She "abruptly fell silent". No more books came from her for the next ten years. A long depression followed upon the move to Bath. It did not help that she was aware that her parents also chose Bath as a place where two unmarried daughters might find suitable husbands. For Jane, this was even more alienating and stressful. She had no great tolerance for the human race in general, no patience with the shallow gentry among whom she moved, at whose dinners and dances she was never a favorite companion. To know that she was not a popular guest could only be painful to her. Nor were the material circumstances favorable, for though she sometimes spent the summer months sea-bathing at resorts and occasional weeks as a favored guest with old friends, it could not be denied that she never had her own home, a familiar and unchanging place to quietly ruminate, nor her own carriage to afford freedom of movement. A spinster, she was more or less constrained by the whims and wishes of others, though thanks to her wealthy and affectionate siblings she received a secure, if small, income that kept her from want. She never had to enter the dreaded ranks of abused teachers or governesses. Claire Tomalin's sympathetic understanding of Jane Austen's character and difficulties makes this biography a valuable addition to a library. Why did someone who created Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility in her early twenties suddenly let a decade go by without producing other masterpieces? For the first time, here, I came upon the answer. In particular, the description of Jane's last days is extremely moving.

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomilan is an excellent biography. For one thing, Ms. Tomilan writes about the facts of Jane Austen's life and doesn't try to embellish her existence. As the she points out in the beginning, Jane Austen's life was one of sorrow and hardship. Although Jane Austen is famous for her wry take on life and detached sense of humor, she lead a life that had many difficulties, Although these days being single is a common option for women, in Jane Austen's day it was not. In the Eighteenth Century, most women married and had many children. Often, the wives were worn out bearing so many babies and died in childbirth. Jane Austen saw at first hand the situation because of her brothers, their wives, and their children. Cassandra, her sister, and she remained "old maids." Because of this, they relied on their family for lodging and care. They were forced to submit to the finances of their family. Even though, Jane Austen produced many famous novels, she had to wait until her father and brother helped her with their publishing. This is the second time that I read the biography and this time I found it very moving. The scenes are fresh and filled with family members. The English countryside is rendered as a vivid place. The trauma that made Jane Austen stop writing for eight years still comes as a shock. This event occurred when her mother and father decided after many years of living in the small town of Steventon, Hampshire, to suddenly move to Bath. Jane, who loved the countryside, her house, and her friends, became unable to continue writing her novels. During this time, Mr. and Mrs. Austen and Jane and Cassandra, traveled a great deal and lived in rented houses. After many years, the family returned to this area of England and eventually settled into a cottage; and Jane once again resumed writing. The book is a wonderful introduction to Jane Austen. The Ms. Tomalin makes a careful study of her many novels, and also shows us the strength that Jane Austen manifested through humor, warmth, and constancy to her family even under stress.

I was completely surprised learning about her life. I had the false impression that she led an uneventful life. An old spinster scratching stories in a corner. I was totally mistaken. She had a fascinating life and did enjoy commercial success while she lived. I couldn't help comparing her and Cassandra to Jane and Lizzy. I agree with some of her contemporary critics in that I loved P&P and am not a fan of Mansfield park. She is one of my favorite authors and I was pleased to learn more of her life. The note section of the E-book is clumsy and I couldn't just press the notation number to go back and forth. I think the hardback would be more appreciated especially because of the pictures. I can highly recommend. Gbash

Tomalin has managed to produce a convincingly thorough of Jane Austen based on what appears to be exhaustive research given the sketchy data that is available.

Please AMAZON, look into this matter, I have received a xerox copy of this book "JANE AUSTEN A LIFE BY CLAIR. WHY THESE book STORES gives fake xoreox books to customar? I am totally disspointed and going to cancel all my 3 books on the way.

This is a brilliant biography of Jane Austen; I anticipated it would be, as I read the author's biography of Dickens back in 2012. She combines excellent, detailed research with an ability to tell a story of the subject's life that combines colour, incident and intelligent speculation based on her sources. This is more than just a literary biography, but also a history of the Austen and Leigh families, tracing their history back to the late 17th century; one of her great uncles born in the 17th century survived until Jane's teenage years. George Austen's clerical life combined with Cassandra Leigh's aristocratic descent in a successful marriage that produced six sons and two daughters. Jane was the shortest lived in a family that generally avoided the early mortality of most large families at that time and for long afterwards. There were plenty of scandals and jealousies and tensions as in all families, though Jane seems to have attempted to get on with all factions. Her literary career was very uneven, with her producing lots of short stories and poems from her teenage years, and before her 25th birthday having already written the first versions of what would later be published as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and (after her death) Northanger Abbey. Then she wrote almost nothing in the first decade of the 19th century, a decade punctuated by the death of her father, and moves around the country, including an unhappy period in Bath, before her final literary period in Chawton, near Winchester. In this small village her activities are described by the author as "making the very modest house into one of the great sites of literary history" - in a period of just six years Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, Pride and Prejudice in 1813 – and three further novels were written here, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion (Northanger Abbey was written earlier in the 1790s). She also wrote the first 12 chapters of a new novel which was eventually published as Sanditon over a century later. Her early death at the age of 41 in 1817 in Winchester deprived the world of a great literary talent - if she had lived into her 70s as did her father and most of her siblings (and her mother lived to 87) just imagine what further works would have flowed from her pen. A great biography.

Very informative, engaging and a jolly good read. I recommend it to everyone with an interest in her life and oeuvre

I’m reading the book and I think it is really interesting and well written!