Jane Austen at Home: A Biography
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
‘This is my kind of history: carefully researched but so vivid that you are convinced Lucy Worsley was actually there at the party – or the parsonage.’ Antonia Fraser
‘A refreshingly unique perspective on Austen and her work and a beautifully nuanced exploration of gender, creativity, and domesticity.’ Amanda Foreman
Lucy Worsley ‘is a great scene-setter for this tale of triumph and heartbreak.’ Sunday Times
On the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, historian Lucy Worsley leads us into the rooms from which our best-loved novelist quietly changed the world.
This new telling of the story of Jane’s life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the places and spaces that mattered to her. It wasn’t all country houses and ballrooms, but a life that was often a painful struggle. Jane famously lived a ‘life without incident’, but with new research and insights Lucy Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. A woman who far from being a lonely spinster in fact had at least five marriage prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less than Mr Darcy.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (18 May 2017) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 4470 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 401 pages |
by Margaret F
I think it was a foregone conclusion that I would really enjoy Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen at Home. I have loved Jane Austen’s books for many years, going back to when I was about 12 and read Pride and Prejudice for the first time. I’ve previously read Carol Shields’s biography Jane Austen and Claire Tomalin’s Jane Austen: a Life so there was really very little I learned reading Jane Austen at Home that surprised me or that I hadn’t known before.
I suppose what was new to me was the emphasis on what home life was like during the period of Jane’s life and seeing photos of the houses and places that she had lived or stayed in as a visitor. And I think I gained a better understanding of the social history of Georgian England and of Jane’s wider family connections and what her family and friends thought of her both as a person and as an author.
Lucy Worsley is an historian and has presented several television history programmes. I am not a great fan of her style – the play acting and dressing up – but she writes in a lively, chatty style and reading her book I could easily hear her voice. Jane Austen at Home is both very readable and very detailed, which is not an easy thing to achieve. There is an extensive section at the end of the book, listing sources, a bibliography, notes on the text and an index. There are two sections of colour plates.
Needless to say it has spurred me on to re-read Jane Austen’s books, and I shall probably begin with re-reading Emma, a book I’ve only read once.
I received an e-galley from the publishers via NetGalley for review and part way through reading it I bought a hardback copy to get the finished product.
by Angela
I devoured this. Jane’s back story is told by Lucy Worsley in vivid prose and a compassionate manner. We meet not only Jane but her family, extended relations and the connections she made throughout her (too short) life that helped to shape her novels.
Jane’s frustrations with her situation, the displacement she felt from being kicked out of her home and her unfailing sense of humour about the whole ‘Vile’ business of life make for a compelling read.
There are also lots of interesting snippets. Such as how Jane and her sister wore pattens to protect their shoes from the mud (wooden overshoes held on with an iron ring). How much Jane received for her first published novel £10 (which equates to £900 today). How her father actively encouraged her writing, bought her a writing desk, created a room for her to write and approached publishers for her.
I liked Worsley’s personal involvement in the story too, like she was discovering interesting things about Jane as she researched, and her enthusiastic interjections give an immediacy to the narrative.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves Jane Austen and her novels and wants to learn more about her life.
by Judith Dubois
The author took up an interesting angle to Jane Austen’s life by identifying her various homes and telling us what was going on in her life while she lived in each one of them. It gives a much more rounded and tangible impression of the woman, often through letters to her family that are rarely quoted. I came away with a far better understanding of the woman that her family tried so hard to fit into a “respectable” mold.
by Rosie Lee
The best bio I have ever read about Miss Austin
by Lauren
Fantastic and insightful biography on the life of Jane Austen.
So easy to read, the words jump off the page and into your imagination.
Such a rich gathering of knowledge about her life, home and family done in a respectful way to the memory of the person that she was and the legend that she is remembered as.
by A.Pincas
A superb and very thorough picture of our wonderful Jane Austen. Once I’d started, I could not put it down. It moves chronologically, but also sideways into relevant current events of the time. Thus, it gives not only a very rounded picture of Jane Austen herself, but also of the accepted rules and customs of the period. It is very simply and straightforwardly written. I cannot praise it enough. It should be nominated for whatever prizes it could fall under!
Anita
by Key Perspective
Having read and enjoyed the authors recent biography of Agatha Christie I picked up this earlier work. I confess to having never read any Jane Austen but thoroughly enjoyed this biography. Using the various properties in which she lived as the frame for the book works really well , especially if you are familiar with the subject locations, as I am with Bath. Highly recommended.