I too have searched for my own Jane, and naturally I have found her to be simply a far, far better version of myself: clever, kind, funny, but also angry at the restrictions of her life, someone tirelessly searching for ways to be free and creative. “While I’ll try to put Jane back into her social class and time, I must admit that I also write as a signed up ‘Janeite’, a devotee and worshipper. The problem I have with this biography props up in the author’s introduction: Of course historians have their biases, but shouldn’t they at least try to distance themselves from their subject? Later, writing about how modern and liberated her heroines seem in comparison to other literary women of the time, Lucy Worsley writes: ‘the enduring reason for Jane’s popularity today is that she seems born outside her time, to be more like one of us, for she lifelong expresses the opposite point of view: in favour of vitality, strength, independence.”Ī wonderful literary biography with lots of insights into what everyday life was like for Jane and other women of the early 19 th century.Although I did-for the most part-find Lucy Worsley’s prose to be compelling, I thought that many of her arguments were unconvincing and biased.
Jane’s great achievement would be to let even the ordinary, flawed, human girls who read her books think that they might be heroines too.” Her quietest heroine of all, Fanny Price, had ‘no glow of complexion, nor any other striking beauty’, while Catherine Morland had ‘nothing heroic’ about her, and was ‘occasionally stupid’. She has a particular knack for giving us a quick but keen insight into Jane’s life that helps illuminate her writing.įor example: ‘Jane all her life would be interested in ordinary, unexceptional girls and what might happen to them. Lucy Worsley’s style is warm and intimate, and her knowledge is immense. This one is a fabulous addition to the oeuvre, and particularly suitable to those who want to understand more about the famous writer and her times without having to slog through the many thick dense academic treatises. I am a proud Janeite, and have read many books and articles about Jane Austen and her vibrant, amusing and clever novels. A woman who far from being a lonely spinster, in fact, had at least five marriage prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less than Mr Darcy Jane famously lived a 'life without incident', but with new research and insights, Lucy Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom.
It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms, but a life that was often a painful struggle. This new telling of the story of Jane's life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the places and spaces that mattered to her. On the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death, historian Lucy Worsley leads us into the rooms from which our best-loved novelist quietly changed the world.
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