Customer Reviews

A memoir of Jane Austen

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This bio is written by Jane Austen's nephew, over a hundred years ago, so it is well-informed and full of tidbits of information about this great novelist. I only wish that someone would come along to do a bit more through telling of Jane A's life. I felt that it was a little bit rosy, something that a family would be comfortable publishing. It left me wondering why we know so little about her.

The writer here is very informative and not at all stilted. There are some interesting questions brought up as I read this. He writes of changes which have taken place now (i.e. mid to late 19th century) from the mid 18th century.He says-who can fix twenty years hence, the date when our dinners began to be carved and handed round by servants, instead of smoking before out eyes and noses on the table?-- what is implied here? Also later in the narrative he discusses the custom of sending out babies to cottages to be nursed. He allows that this seems to strange to "us"(circa 1869) but concludes that perhaps the parsonages in those days (at the time of Jane Austen and siblings were born) were less grand and the cottages less squalid. What interests me is the reasons that the cottages in the later 19th century have become poorer than maybe 70 years before. Recognizing that there are variations in location and family situations in all periods I am wondering why he would say this. Is this the "Dickens effect"? I wish some British social historian would read this and comment.