Summary
A biography of Jane Austen that places her in the period in which she wrote, and emphasizes the evolution of her works. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.
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Media Reviews
"[E]xcellent work....Tomalin...grabs the reader with her use of the second person pronoun: 'you can imagine,' 'when you think.' The effect is strange for a moment, but soon succeeds in pulling the reader into the heart of the biographical process itself." -- Kathryn Hughes
-- Literary Review
"[E]xpertly places the great novelist in her historical moment, without attempting to fully plumb her psyche....Tomalin doesn't convince with her tentative explanations of what mad Austen tick. Be it somewhat lacking in depth, however, the sketch of the famous author that emerged from Tomalin's unassuming, lucid and concise account...does do justice to the integrity of her complex character....Recommended for those seeking a brief introduction to Austen's life, times, and work."
-- Kirkus
"Ms. Tomalin has adopted a casual, personal style. Although her constant speculations...are grating, she has written a readable account of Austen's life." -- Tess Lewis
-- Wall Street Journal
"Claire Tomalin, while sticking firmly to facts, never lets her readers forget that what she describes is the 18th century, over 200 years distant, in its opinions and habits, from our viewpoint." -- Joan Aiken
-- Washington Post Book World
"In her marvelous new biography of Austen, the English writer Claire Tomalin strips away [the] mythology to reveal a tough, humorous and highly resourceful woman. She not only depicts a life that was considerably more worldly than commonly supposed, but also delineates an emotional experience 'full of events, of distress and even trauma,' which permanently shaped Austen's apprehension of the world....Writing in vivid, authoritative prose, she does a masterly job of delineating the complex emotional mathematics of the Austen clan....The only complaint one might register is that Ms. Tomalin's discussions of the novels are too brief...; her remarks are so illuminating that the reader is left wanting more. That quibble aside, Ms. Tomalin has pulled off something very difficult: She has written a biography that reflects Austen's own exacting standards, a book that radiates intelligence, wit and insight." -- Michiko Kakutani
-- New York Times
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Random House Inc
Published date: 1997
Size: 7 x 9.5 inches
Weight: 1.7 pounds
Pages: 341
Publisher's Notes
Here, firmly rooted in her own social setting for the first time, is the real Jane Austen--the shy woman willing to challenge convention, the woman of no pretensions who nevertheless called herself "formidable," a woman who could be frivolous and yet suffer from black depressions, who showed unfailing loyalty and, in the conduct of her own life, unfailing bravery. In an act of understanding and brilliant synthesis, Claire Tomalin reveals Jane Austen with a clarity never before achieved, one which makes us look upon her novels with fresh and even greater admiration.The world she wrote about--that place of civility and reassuring stability--was never quite her own. As Tomalin shows, Jane Austens family existed on the very fringe of the world she described in her fiction, struggling to get ahead with little money and no land in the competitive society of Georgian England, sometimes succeeding but often failing with painful consequences. New research in family papers has yielded a rich, tragicomic picture of the Austen clan--their ambitions, their matrimonial alliances, their exotic connections with India and France. At the same time, Tomalins explorations in local archives reveal a surprising view of the neighbors the family lived among in Hampshire, more extravagant and eccentric by far than anyone depicted in Austen's books. We realize how much closer her genius lies, in its splendid artifice, to the great comic operas of Mozart than to the main tradition of the English novel.But it is in the deeply human portrait of Jane Austen herself that this biography excels. The honesty and directness of her personality (perfect heroines made her "sick and wicked"), her strength in giving up a chance at marriage to follow the path her vocation as a writer required her to take, the warmth and long consistency of her relationship with her sister, Cassandra, the poignancy of her death--Claire Tomalin here captures, with unforgettable skill, the living character of a great writer who is read, reread, read again, and adored, now more than ever.
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