Jane Austen: A Life - Softcover

Tomalin, Claire

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679766766 ISBN 13: 9780679766766

Publisher: Vintage, 1999

Synopsis

At her death in 1817, Jane Austen left the world six of the most beloved novels written in English--but her shortsighted family destroyed the bulk of her letters; and if she kept any diaries, they did not survive her. Now acclaimed biographer Claire Tomalin, author of A Life of My Own, has filled the gaps in the record, creating a remarkably fresh and convincing portrait of the woman and the writer.

While most Austen biographers have accepted the assertion of Jane's brother Henry that "My dear Sister's life was not a life of events," Tomalin shows that, on the contrary, Austen's brief life was fraught with upheaval. Tomalin provides detailed and absorbing accounts of Austen's ill-fated love for a young Irishman, her frequent travels and extended visits to London, her close friendship with a worldly cousin whose French husband met his death on the guillotine, her brothers' naval service in the Napoleonic wars and in the colonies, and thus shatters the myth of Jane Austen as a sheltered and homebound spinster whose knowledge of the world was limited to the view from a Hampshire village.

About this title

Product Description:

Title: Jane Austen( A Life) <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: ClaireTomalin <>Publisher: VintageBooksUSA

Review:

"Brisk and sparkling--a page turner, in fact."- The New Yorker

"A biography that reflects Austen's own exacting standards, a book that radiates intelligence, wit, and insight."- The New York Times

"Unusually absorbing and acute... Tomalin has a novelist's imagination and playful insight."- The Atlantic Monthly

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0679766766
• ISBN 13: 9780679766766
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400