Jane Austen: Her Life: The Definitive Portrait of Jane Austen: Her Life, Her Art, Her Family, Her World [Paperback]

Park Honan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 1989

Readers have long cherished the brilliant, ironic novels of Jane Austen and critics have ranked them with the masterpieces of world literature, but surprisingly, there has been no major biography of the novelist in over seventy years. Park Honan's highly accliamed "Jane Austen: Her Life" is the biography that Austen--and her readers--have long deserved.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Aptly subtitled, this biography concentrates on the novelist's personal and family life at Steventon, Bath, Chawton and, finally, Winchester, with full treatment of the writings given only in the Chawton period. "A detailed and winning portrait emerges of Austen and her relationships with friends and family," remarked PW. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

With access to newly discovered Austen family manuscripts, Honan creates in rich detail contexts for Jane Austen's life: familial, political, historical. Yet the person at the center is curiously absent. Austen's letters are used to convey facts about her daily life without sympathetic probing. What underlines Honan's difficulty with realizing this woman's everyday identity is his suspicion of its significance. He stresses her connection to the activities of her male relatives, especially her naval brothers, as if that is what gives her, and her art, credence. But what makes a naval war importantly real, and those "three or four Families in a Country Village" a "near-vacuum"? A misleading approach to a brilliant woman who lived and wrote about the experience of most women throughout history: domestic life. Suzanne Juhasz, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 484 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 8, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449903192
• ISBN-13: 978-0449903193
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,316,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Janeyphiles check this book..., June 6, 2000

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Jane Austen: Her Life (Paperback)

Park Honan (professor of English and American Literature at the Universiy of Leeds in England) wrote "Jane Austen: Her Life" in the late 1980's. At the time he wrote his book, he had access to much new material including a treasure trove of letters written by various folks who knew Ms. Austen. Mr. Honan has included an impressive bibliography in his book which should keep one reading for years to come.

Honan says Ms. Austen understood the current affairs of her time and he provides ample documentation to substantiate this assertion. He also suggests her knowledge of current events is reflected in her writing, albeit thinly disguised.

Although Austen lead a somewhat sheltered life as the daughter of an English vicar, she lived in exciting times. Napolean was at his height, the Revolution in France and subsequent 'Reign of Terror' kept English on pins and needles, thirteen of England's 23 American colonies had revolted and created a new nation that had sided with the French, and the aristocracy was in turmoil over scandels surrounding the monarcy.

Austen was kept abreast of these activities in a variety of ways including letters from her naval brother Frank. Historians have uncovered over 500 letters Frank wrote to family members, and he kept meticulous journals of his time in the navy. Although he probably did not tell Jane everything, he did share many newsworthy events such as the difficulties on his ship the 'London' when six men were hanged and some others "lashed for insolence, mutiny and an 'unnatural crime of Sodomy." Honan says Austen refers to this incident in "Mansfield Park" when she has the character Mary Crawford who is living next door with her adulterous admiral uncle say, "Of Rears and Vices, I saw enough."

Honan says Austen was influenced by the writings of Mme. de Sevigne, whom Ms. Austen's father considered too much of a feminist. Jane Austen was very concerned about the plight of women and considered adultry and divorce a scourge on women. She was aware of the Regent Prince's attempt to put aside his wife Queen Charlotte on "trumped up" charges of adultry. She sympathized with the Queen, unaware that the Queen was a fan of her books.

Influenced by works such as the third Earl of Shaftesbury's "Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times" she enjoined her readers to have the 'sense' "to control one's emotions through observation, reason and moral understanding" and the sensibility to have an "accurate perception of other people and their feelings."

There are plenty of examples throughout Honan's book of the effect of external events on Ms. Austen's writing and thinking, not only her books, but in the letters that did survive and journals kept by Ms. Austen and others.

This is an informative an excellent book for anyone who wants to know more about Ms. Austen's life and works.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Oops -- Honan's Errors, July 12, 2001

By 

Edith Lank (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jane Austen: Her Life (Paperback)

I found 23 factual errors in Honan's book -- when I mentioned this to someone I was told that a reader in Virginia had found 142. There are much better biographies of Jane Austen out there -- for starters, no one has yet surpassed Elizabeth Jenkins', first published in the 1930s, and a fine recent one, a good introduction to JA's life, is Maggie Lane's latest, Jane Austen's World. Don't be put off by the fact that it is slick and, as they say, richly illustrated -- it's readable, sound and remarkably complete despite its size.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Janeites will want to read this, July 7, 2005

By 

Elizabeth A. Root (Laurel, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jane Austen: Her Life (Hardcover)

This book claims to cover a great deal of new material, although I would have to say that it doesn't seem to me to add much to other biographies. I would guess that a lot of the new material relates to Frank Austen, since the biography begins, somewhat surprisingly, with a several page account of his entry into the Navy. I would therefore recommend it to Janeites, who will want all the details, but those who have already read a biography and are not terribly interested probably won't find that this rewards the additional reading. (I am among those who just love details, although this is a bit much even for me.)

Previous biographers, such as Elizabeth Jenkins (Jane Austen: A Biography), have portrayed the Austens as a loving and harmonious family. Recent biographers have challenged this view, sometimes even arguing for serious tension between Jane and her sister Cassandra. Honan argues for a relatively harmonious group, with some normal dissensions.

I give somewhat mixed marks to the writing. I find statements such as "The deepest purpose of her burlesques was always to ensure her freedom within the loving group of the Austens ... " (p.70) as unverifiable verbiage that adds little to the reading experience. I don't think that we needed several pages on the actual events of the Battle of Trafalger, although of course it adds to the general historical detail. On the other hand, Honan's reconstruction of JA's possible thoughts as she agonized over withdrawing from her engagement to Bigg-Withers are quite affecting, even if speculative. I don't think that I have ever read a more moving account of her courage during her last illness.

The bibliographic citations are frustratingly uneven and incomplete. Previous biographers have pilloried Edward Austen (Knight) for his failure to offer his mother and sisters a home immediately after his father's death. Honan claims in passing that he did make such an offer and they declined it. There is no citation for this startling, and in understanding the interactions of the Austens, important statement! Honan also agrees with Valerie Grosvenor Myers (Jane Austen, Obstinate Heart: A Biography) in stating that Mrs. Cassandra Austen (JA's mother) was reluctant to get married, but neither cites a source! This claim suggests a number of interesting possibilities regarding the mother-daughter relationship and JA's own decisions regarding marriage, and is certainly important enough to require substantiation.

One of the reviewers has mentioned that there are numerous errors in the book. I can't say that I was struck by them, unless the reviewer is speaking of difference in interpretation, but I can't claim to be any expert, either.

Honan includes several family trees and the notes, such as they are, are arranged so as to be easy to find. There is an index, not as detailed as it might be. There is a useful review of materials and previous writings on Austen and related topics.

Honan does not like John Halperin's book, The Life of Jane Austen, which he claims is inaccurate, but it is so far my favorite and the most focussed of the long biographies. For a short biography, which I like to read before long biographies when available, I recommend Carol Shield's book, Jane Austen (Penguin Lives), and Valerie Grosvenor Myer's Jane Austen, Obstinate Heart: A Biography, as a midlength book. The latter is flawed by a lack of notes.