30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not to be missed in studying Jane Austen, June 20, 2005
This review is from: The Life of Jane Austen (Paperback)
There are many biographies of Jane Austen available, but I urge readers to include this one. One of the most noteworthy features of Halperin's work is that he does not feel the need to idealize Jane Austen. He therefore enriches his book with information carefully ignored by other biographers.
Austen accomplished the very rare feat of writing books that remain both commercial and popular successes after almost two centuries. I don't see what else she needs to do to be worthy of our attention, and I am exasperated by futile arguments trying to deny her position as a woman of her class and time. I am tired of her biographers "apologizing" or trying to explain away he failure to make direct comments on contemporary politics - her books are probably all the more universal and enduring because she didn't. Rather than making feeble attempts to tie the Elliot's financial misfortunes to general economic trends (instead of their own fecklessness, which is what I believe Austen intended), Halperin quotes very effectively from Austen's letters to show that she was aware of the political and social life around her.
Halperin also portrays her as a much less pleasant person that most authors care to see. His Jane is shown in her letters to be often petty and gratuitously mean, heartlessly witty. The question, which Halperin doesn't really explore, but which might explain some of the discrepancy between the Austens' recollections is, how different was her public persona from her letters to Cassandra? Were the letters an outlet that helped enable her to be pleasant and civil? I am personally think that sincerity and frankness can be much over-rated vis a vis civility and consideration, so I wouldn't fault JA as a hypocrite, if this is true.
Halperin also presents her as decidely less fond of children, or at least young children, than other works. He is ignoring some of the writings about her that are quoted by other authors, but his point of view is well-supported by quotations from her letters. Particularly in combinations with other writers, the reader is left with a much more complex and nuanced view of Jane.
Overall, the book is well written and readable, and unlike some other biographies I could mention, does not go haring off on tangential subjects. Halperin also restrains himself from "overinterpreting" his material, attempting posthumous psychoanalysis and the like.
I am not terribly fond of mixing too much literary analysis with biography, and I disagree with some of Halperin's analysis, but I thought that his review of Mansfield Park with reference to JA's life was very fine and plausible.
I fault this, and all other JA biographies for their treatment of Cassandra Leigh Austen's (Mrs. George Austen's) "hypochondria". I have been told in every biography that she was a hypochondriac, but no-one has made a convincing case for it. The glimpses that one gets of her seem to be of a steady, cheerful, practical woman, not the most likely candidate for hypochondria, although it doesn't rule it out. I am also quite aware that in previous decades, doctors were much more likely to attribute illnesses, particularly in women, to psychosomatic causes, so I would urge modern biographers to re-examine the evidence. The most common quote is Jane's statement that she has little sympathy for a head cold unaccompanied by a fever or sore throat, but I think that may say more about the daughter than the mother. At 52, from my own experience, that of my friends and our parents, I am very aware that there are any number of bodily ills, all the more likely as we reach and pass middle-age, that are not apparent to outside observers, crippling or rapidly fatal, which none the less can cause the sufferer considerable discomfort and inconvenience while draining humor, patience, energy and enthusiasm. Just to name a few: chronic fatique syndrome, arthritis, pruritis, irritable bowel syndrome, incontinence, hemmoroids, insomnia, digestive problems, etc. Mrs. Austen would, in addition, be vulnerable to the ills that result from many closely-spaced pregnanacies, including such joys a varicose veins, joint injuries and a variety of gynecological problems. I would not ordinally fault Halperin individually, but he does carry it to new depths, finding it unreasonable, perhaps even neurotic, for the 72-year old woman to decide that she was giving up travelling in the slow, jolting, dusty conditions that prevailed at the time.
Despite this last grumble, this is one of my favorites among the seven or so biographies that I have read, and the best of the long biographies. For those wanting shorter works, I recommend Carol Shields'
Jane Austen (Penguin Lives) and Valerie Grosvenor Myer's
Jane Austen, Obstinate Heart: A Biography.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enlightening view of a Austen, February 13, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Life of Jane Austen (Paperback)
Halperin really did his homework and debunks myths that Austen was all smiles and sweetness. Don't get me wrong, by no means does he speak badly of the author. He just portrays her as a human being with emotions, sarcasim and wit who had a not-so-perfect life or career.
In his intro he states that the author of such books as Sense and Sensibility could not have been all manners and niceness. Anyone who reads her books has to feel the same. Halperin suggests there is a little bit of autobiography in Austen's works and documents his opinions with letters from Jane to her sister.
Great read!
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
THIS IS NOT A BIOGRAPHY OF JANE AUSTEN, October 20, 2010
This review is from: The Life of Jane Austen (Paperback)
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK if you were intent on reading a scholarly, factual, and unbaised account of Jane Austen's life. This is not a biography, but a ludicrous attempt by Mr Halperin to psychoanalyze Ms Austen by means of extracting snipets and fragments from her novels and letters in order to show her in the worst possible light. It is evident that Mr Halperin is no lover of women in general, and has a vitriolic dislike of Ms Austen in specific. I envision Mr Halperin spending a tireless eternity rummaging through Ms Austen's "garbage bins" in order to support his biased and, at times, grossly inaccurate interpretations and suppositions regarding her nature. He is determined that we should know she was not a "nice" person. Is this scholarship? I think not. More likely the spiteful gossiping of a sour old women.
We need only to read her novels to know that she possessed a biting, sometimes cruel wit, that she did not suffer fools gladly, and was somewhat embittered by her domestic circumstances - a young woman of no fortune with little prospect of making a "good" marriage. However, in the final analysis, do we really care if she was "Mary Sunshine" or the "Wicked Witch of the East"? Is it not her genius, and the quality of her novels that should be the matters of consequence.
Mr Halperin's unrelenting ferriting for documentation to support his charges of Ms Austen's unkind/unpleasant personality traits makes for an uninteresting and tacky read. It is unfortunate that Mr Halperin did not make better use of his sources and research. My copy just went into the Recycle Bin.
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