Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart [Paperback]

Valerie Grosvenor Myer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

There has been a veritable explosion of interest in the works of Jane Austen during the lasttwo years. With five films based on Austen novels recently released via film andtelevision, her books are finding a new audience among both readers and booksellers.Thus Valerie Grosvenor Myer's recent biography, Jane Austen: Obstinate Heartproves most timely.In fact, Jane Austen is best read in conjunction with itssubject's novels, for so much of Jane's life went into her six books, although her heroinesgenerally fared better than their creator.Born the seventh of eight children into thegenteel but impoverished home of a clergyman, Jane Austen quickly learned what itmeant to be a woman without money--a situation most of her female protagonists shared,yet often overcame through marriage. Austen, however, refused to marry without love,and thus never married. Jane Austen does a fine job of relaying the details of its subject's life--herrelationship with her family and friends, the indignities of her unfortunate financialcircumstances, and her pleasure in the success of those novels she lived to see published.But more than that, Myer delves into the mores and manners of Austen's times--theimportance placed on marriage, respectability, and financial security, all central to theauthor's novels. Most engaging is Myer's exploration of Jane Austen's prickly, imperfectpersonality, revealed through letters, diaries, and the recollections of her family. InJane Austen the reader discovers a fully-drawn woman, complete with flaws,strengths, and a burning talent that lives on today, 200 years after her death.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There has been a veritable explosion of interest in the works of Jane Austen during the last two years. With five films based on Austen novels recently released via film and television, her books are finding a new audience among both readers and booksellers. Thus Valerie Grosvenor Myer's recent biography, Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart proves most timely. In fact, Jane Austen is best read in conjunction with its subject's novels, for so much of Jane's life went into her six books, although her heroines generally fared better than their creator. Born the seventh of eight children into the genteel but impoverished home of a clergyman, Jane Austen quickly learned what it meant to be a woman without money--a situation most of her female protagonists shared, yet often overcame through marriage. Austen, however, refused to marry without love, and thus never married.

Jane Austen does a fine job of relaying the details of its subject's life--her relationship with her family and friends, the indignities of her unfortunate financial circumstances, and her pleasure in the success of those novels she lived to see published. But more than that, Myer delves into the mores and manners of Austen's times--the importance placed on marriage, respectability, and financial security, all central to the author's novels. Most engaging is Myer's exploration of Jane Austen's prickly, imperfect personality, revealed through letters, diaries, and the recollections of her family. In Jane Austen the reader discovers a fully-drawn woman, complete with flaws, strengths, and a burning talent that lives on today, 200 years after her death. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Given the continuing popularity of her novels, these two publications will be of particular interest to new and longtime aficionados of Austen. In her biography, historian Myer dispels the wholly sweet and kind image of Austen as presented in family memoirs by showing evidence of Austen's human frailties and speculating about others. Drawing from family papers and letters and accounts from friends and acquaintances, Myer provides details of not only how Austen looked physically but of her flirtations, dancing, frustrations, etc. Myer focuses primarily on members of the close-knit Austen family. In this context, Myer easily and naturally melds Austen's life and writings, providing speculative conclusions with which readers may not always agree. Editor Selwyn, in association with the Jane Austen Society, has scrupulously prepared a poetry collection representing over 50 pieces of verse written by three generations of the Austen family, including ingenious riddles and charades written for family entertainment. Organized by author, the work includes a complete collection of poems by Jane Austen, although Selwyn notes that it was her brother James who was the most prolific and gifted poet. Selwyn, who took the texts from autograph manuscripts or from the earliest known manuscripts, provides detailed explanatory and textual notes plus a bibliography of original manuscript sources at the end of the collection. Both the biography and the poetry collection are recommended for academic libraries.?Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559704357
• ISBN-13: 978-1559704359
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,790,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A nice try but better books on Austen exist, February 18, 2001

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart (Paperback)

I think Valerie Grovesnor Myer has made a nice stab at trying to write to a biography of Austen and she succeeds relatively well. The only trouble biographies of Austen are all drawn from the same material - very little new material has been turned up in recent years and so biographers are forced to reinterpret the old sources to find a new angle. And that really is what this author has done - with only moderate success.

She has 24 chapters, mostly chronological although really the complaint that this is mostly about Austen's family than Austen herself bears through - especially in the first nine chapters.

To make her book different again Myer has attempted to find biographical incidents from Austen's own life to explain incidents in her novels. Not a bad thing to do - but I found it overpowering at times - as though she were just going from one incident to another - and sometimes I felt her examples used weren't good ones. For instance she likened Jane Austens' brother Edward's adoption by the Knights as being like Fanny Price's living with the Bertrams in her 'Mansfield Park'. Which is not at all the same situation. In the novel Fanny lived with the family but was never adopted by them. In real life, Edward adopted the new surname of Knight and eventually inherited a large estate and fortune from it. The whole situation in fact reminds one of Frank Churchill in 'Emma' - Frank Weston is adopted by his aunt, Mrs Churchill, adopts her name and becomes her heir. It seems that is a much better example - why did Myer use the much less satisfactory one?

Another point is that she shows that she has read various books on Austen (for instance Deidre Le Faye's collected letters of Austen) but doesn't seem to have done much research outside of those on the history of the period. Myer cites a letter from Austen to her neice Fanny Knight in which she talks of the whole race of 'Pagets'. Myer has clearly used the footnote which is in Le Faye's edition of the letters to explain this remark about Austen's dislike of the Pagets - explaining about Lord Paget's (later Marquess of Anglesey) elopement with Lady Charlotte Wellesley. What both Le Faye and Myer miss is that the year before this elopement there was another High profile Paget elopement when Lord Paget's brother eloped with Lady Boringdon. A little extra research on Myer's part would have revealed this fact.

I found the book interesting though for Myer's interpretation, but I wouldn't pick it by choice. If you are looking for a really good biography of Jane - Park Honan's is much better - or Claire Tomalin's. There are other great books on the history of the time you can read - Maggie Lane is great - and Deidre Le Faye's collection of letters is fabulous. So there is a lot of much better material out there. But if this is all you can get hold of - well it would do in a pinch.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not satisfying, November 18, 1999

By 

microfiche (Scarborough, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart (Hardcover)

I would buy this book if it were on a discount table because of the scraps of information about country life in the late Georgian period and if I could not get a copy of Jane Austen's letters; but I would rather buy a book about each than this book about both. It's hardly a dime novel; it's a list of her visits her family and her friends. The prose sounds like: Jane went here. Jane wrote to her sister who was staying there. Jane disliked one sister-in-law. Jane liked another sister in law. I think the reason a sillouette of Jane is on the cover is that the reader is treated to a bio of a shadow person. There is nothing in Jane's life above the daily commonplace lot here; yet there must have been something within Jane or in the way Jane saw her surroundings that was not commonplace to her because Jane's novels are not commonplace to us. As to any - ahem - kennel comparisons: a Jane Austen novel is like a well prepared pitcher of lemonade - enough sugar and water to soften the juice but not enough to subdue it. Why shouldn't her family letters be the same? I don't think this author dislikes Jane. I know many tart tongued women and enjoy their conversation (when I'm not the subject of it). They're usually very wise and dicerning. This book cried out for foot/end notes that tied the above scraps of info to a source - either to a letter or a book in the Selected Bibliography (why "selected"?) so they can be verified. It's not good for study purposes.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Warning, this book is dreadful!, November 11, 2006

By 

sophie "sophie" (Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart (Paperback)

I must say that I am in shock after having read this "biography". The author clearly does not understand irony - so then why bothering reading Jane Austen at all? Writing about her and being so unappreciative of her qualities must be considered an abuse by any true Jane Austen fan. Why is V. G. Myer so eager to make Jane Austen look like a bitter spinster that never experienced love end therefore hated every women who did marry and have children? Is the author that kind of lady who becomes very frightened when she meets with an intelligent woman with a sharp tongue - because she clearly can't stand Jane Austen's sense of humor. And, on top of it all, she has not done a good work when it comes to the research. I strongly doubt that she has read James Edward Austen Leigh's "Memoirs", she misquotes him and misunderstands him on some very crucial points. She just one of these authors trying to make money out of Jane Austen without making any effort whatsoever.