Customer Reviews

Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart

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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.

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.

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.

This is a very good biography for readers who want a fairly straightforward, reliable, moderate length account of Austen's life. Among the seven biographies that I have read so far, I think that this is the best first choice for readers who want more than Carol Shield's well-done Jane Austen, part of Penquins short biography series, but who don't want to tackle a book as long as John Halperin's Life of Jane Austen, nearly twice the length of this. Halperin weaves a lot more quotes together to build his narrative,something that I found disconcerting when I was younger, although I like it now. I leave the reader to determine their own taste. (As a teenager, I regarded books made up largely of quotes as most people regard books with mathematical formula.)


Myers organizes her work both chronologically and thematically, discussing all of JA's romances and potential romances in one chapter, and then alluding back to them when she returns to chronological order. She recounts standard interpretations, but allows for some alternatives; she duly records that Mrs. Austen was regarded as a hypochondriac, but notes that her frequent pregnancies may have left her with problems of which we are unaware.

Some of the reviewers have complained that Myers does not contribute any new research, but frankly I think that there are probably few facts to add to what is already know and a readable biography is itself a great accomplishment, and preferable to inventing wild theories to gain a little publicity. Some other authors that have produced more research into the minutiae of Georgian-Regency life thereby scant JA's life or hare off on tangents that may try some readers' patience. While I personally adore all this somewhat extraneous detail, it is best preceded by reading a book like this that gives one a solid grounding regarding JA's life. Others make up for a lack of new information by posthumous psychoanalysis and mindreading, not something that I encourage.

The reader should be aware that the book is serious flawed by a lack of notes. I don't know if this was the author's or the publisher's choice. The book generally accords with what other biographers write, so I am fairly confident of the facts, but when Myers makes an unusual assertion, such as the claim that Cassandra Leigh didn't really want to marry George Austen, this is very irritating.

In all, I think this is a good choice for entering into a study of JA's life, one that can be enriched by reading other books later.

The punchline of Valerie Grosvenor Myer's 1997 biography "Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart" is delivered in its preface. Contrary to the warm and contented portrait in family memoirs, Myer asserts that romance novelist Jane Austen knew a life of genteel poverty and personal disappointment, yet showed her "obstinate heart" by refusing to marry a wealthy man she did not love. This interpretation of Jane Austen's life is certainly a plausible one, but it has been told by other biographers with more flair.

Every biographer of Jane Austen must confront the challenge of the limited material available on her life. Myer chooses a conventional approach. Readers familiar with Austen's surviving letters will recognize that Myer has adapted excerpts into a chronological narrative, rather freely mixing Jane's comments to her sister about domestic matters with her own interpretations of Austen's state of mind. The result emphasizes Austen's limited personal possibilities as the dowerless daughter of a middle-class cleric. The failure to marry ensured that Austen would live a frustrating life as a family poor relation; recognition for her remarkable literary talents came only in the very last years of her life.

Myer devotes surprisingly little energy to speculation about Jane Austen's personal romances, whatever they may have been. She spents more time on Austen's interactions with her immediate family and various in-laws and cousins, although without generating any unusual insights. This reader wishes Myer had explored in more detail the dynamics of Jane Austen's intimate relationship with her sister Cassandra or her rather difficult relationship with her mother. Myer limits her literary criticism to drawing some parallels between the characters and locations in Austen's novels with their possible counterparts in life. The book includes a nice selection of family portraits.

"Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart" is a conventional and serviceable biography most likely to appeal to readers new to Jane Austen and not prepared to wade into various academic controversies about her life. Devoted fans of Jane Austen already familar with her life and letters can find more challenging biographies elsewhere.

I have read at least 4 or 5 biographies of Jane Austen, and this one was a waste of paper. Ms. Myer spends a great deal of time reporting verbatim what Jane Austen says in her letters. Having read Jane Austen's letters, (which are readily available in many editions), they are much more interesting than Ms. Myer's transcription of them. Whether she intended it or not, Ms. Myer comes across as petty and spiteful. This book was not a pleasant read as to content. Also, it was not very well written. I was highly disappointed in it.

Just above her grave in Wincester Cathedral is written, "In the beginning was the word..." I am convinced that no one has ever written English prose narrative as well as Jane Austen. In her book, 'Jane Austen, Obstinate Heart' Valerie Grosvenor Myer takes the reader behind the scenes into the private life of this remarkable author. Using correspondence, diaries, and the memoirs of Jane Austen and her family and friends, Ms. Myer constructs a biography that helps the reader understand Austen's day-to-day existence 200 years ago--the environment that formed her and inspired her creative process.

She lived a life of genteel poverty--barely made genteel by the kindness of her brothers and friends. She worked hard--in an age when the mangle was just invented, irons were heated on the fireplace, and woman's work was never done, she and her mother and sister could not always get the help they needed. She worried about money, reworked old clothes to make them last, lacked good food at times, was cold at times, and wanted for many material comforts. And yet, she managed without the aid of a computer or even a typewriter, to produce six of the world's greatest novels.

This book will appeal to women more so than men because it concerns issues that have affected women more. Most women have faced some form of discrimination or deprivation, or know of the deprivation of other women--lack of food, lack of clothing, fear, depression, an inability to control one's reproductive life, and poverty. Austen was aware of women's struggles--her own and those of family and friends. She watched five sisters-in-law succomb to early deaths owing to childbearing.

Austen's books center on the struggles of heroines to make lives for themselves in what is essentially a man's world. Although this book doesn't discuss Austen's books in any depth, it certainly illuminates the links between the life of the author and her characters. It's an excellent book. It made me cry.

This book reads like a dime novel in search of a discount. Facetious, petty and juvenile. It will soon end up rightfully in the 70% discounted bin alongside autobiography of Dick Cavet

This was the 4th biography that I have read about Jane Austen. I loved it because it didn't dwell on Eliza the cousin or the shoplifting Aunt! It was about the day to day life of Jane Austen and the world she lived in. If you have a little knowledge from other bios about Jane, this is a great read. To the author - don't be discouraged by the other reviews! I want to read your book on Charlotte Bronte if I can find it.

This book is not worth buying or spending time on. I have read several biographies on Jane Austen and some phrases of the book seem directly lifted from these. Besides this, it is sloppy with inappropriate word usage such as "bitchy" to describe Austen in one paragraph. One would think a biographer of Jane Austen would be inpired to write with as much polish as one could but this biographer seems to have written with haste and little depth of thought.