Jane Austen: A Life

Jane Austen left behind six of the most well-known English novels when she passed away in 1817, but the majority of her letters were burned by her obliging family, and if she kept any journals, they were lost when she died. Renowned biographer Claire Tomalin has now filled in the blanks, painting a strikingly accurate and new picture of the subject and the author.

While the majority of Austen biographers have agreed with Jane's brother Henry's claim that "My dear Sister's life was not a life of events," Tomalin demonstrates that Austen's short life was really filled with turmoil. 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 is dispelled by Tomalin's detailed and compelling accounts of Austen's misguided love for a young Irishman, her frequent travels and lengthy visits to London, her close friendship with a worldly cousin whose French husband met his death on the guillotine, and her brothers' naval service in the Napoleonic wars and in the colonies.