Jane Austen: A Life

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.

1997's "Jane Austen: A Life" is Claire Tomalin's highly readable, even dramatic account of the life of the popular romance novelist. Jane Austen left little for her future biographers beyond her published novels and some surviving letters and manuscripts. Tomalin addresses Jane in the context of her large and interesting family and their Hampshire friends and relatives. The result doesn't necessarily add a great deal to our limited store of knowledge about Jane Austen; it does provide some interesting insights into her context, and should bury forever any concerns about the source of Austen's acute understanding of human nature or the material for her novels. The good news about "Jane Austen: A Life" is that Claire Tomalin is a gifted writer and her book will be a page-turner for many fans. Tomalin has done her extensive research. In addition, Tomalin is not shy about speculating when it comes to the signficant gaps in our knowledge of Austen's life. Her speculation is generally reasonable and plausible, and almost always fascinating to read. It is less clear how much of the book is reasonable inference from the limited record and how much edges toward historical fiction. Tomalin includes her own literary criticism on Jane Austen's various works. This criticism is frankly hit or miss. Her comments on "Lady Susan" highlight its unusual leading character. Her analysis of the novel fragment "The Watson" explains why Jane Austen never finished it. However, she unfairly slights one of the main characters in "Sense and Sensibility", misreads the fate of Mr. Wickham and Lydia in "Pride and Prejudice", and perhaps misses the point of "Mansfield Park." Readers familiar with Jane Austen's novels can draw their own conclusions. Jane Austen is as vivid as Claire Tomalin can make her in this biography, a clever, acutely observant woman who must on occasion have been a little intimidating in person. She is very much a family person, at the beck and call of brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews all her life. We come to appreciation for how difficult Austen's life was after her father died. Her failure to marry lfet her, her spinster sister Cassandra, and her widowed mother in genteel poverty, dependent on support from her brothers and with few choices about where and how they would live. Unfortunately, Jane's writing did not begin to produce real income before her early death in 1817. "Jane Austen: A Life" is highly recommended as an interesting, even dramatic biography. The book includes an excellent selection of portraits of Jane Austen's family members. It is perhaps ironic that the one verified portrait of Jane Austen in life was said by her family to be inadequate, just as the person behind the novels continues to be elusive to biographers and fans alike.

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.

Claire Tomalin writes a very skillful biography, with just the right amount of conjecture and authorial interference. Jane Austen didn't leave much for biographers to work on; letters were destroyed, she refrained from commenting on many of life's aspects. Wisely, I am sure, since a maiden lady of the time could get into trouble by expressing personal opinions about life. Put it into her books, yes, but with enough ambiguity that the writer remains disguised. As a companion to the novels, this book is valuable. It competes with a large volume of material from 'Janeites', but convinces by its balanced tone.

This biography was decently researched. Unfortunately, Tomalin inserts her own opinions and biases into the narrative more than a few times, which damages her credibility.

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

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.

I really enjoyed this book! But Jane Austen absolutely remains elusive!