JANE
AUSTEN AT HOME
BY
LUCY WORSLEY
THE
BLURB:-
Historian
Lucy Worsley leads us into the rooms from which our best-loved
novelist quietly changed the world.
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. It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms, but a life that was
often a painful struggle. Jane famously lived a 'life without
incident', but with new research and insights, Lucy Worsley reveals a
passionate woman who fought for her freedom. A woman who was far
from being a lonely spinster in fact had had at least five marriage
prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less
than Mr. Darcy.
THE
REALITY:-
This
book was my treat to myself whilst visiting Bath. I didn't buy
anything else as I'm not a lover of shopping, and the only shops we
popped into during our three day stay were charity shops (apart from
Poundland and Tesco, to pick up snacks!) We visited the lovely Jane
Austen Centre and picked up a good deal of information about this lady's life and work. I
always enjoy watching Lucy Worsley's historical television offerings,
and have seen her programme dedicated to Jane Austen. As books
conjure up a more detailed perspective than any televised biography
ever can, I decided to give this a go.
I'm
so glad I did! During my lifetime I've read all but one of Jane's
six novels and will make a point of checking them out again, as it
was a long time ago. The Jane Austen Centre was up the road from one
of Jane's four Bath residences, but the Centre kind of glosses over
the fact that, although two of her novels strongly feature the city,
she wasn't actually very happy here. I get the impression that she
was a real country girl at heart and possibly associated Bath with
the death of her father. It's interesting that someone who devoted
her work to the whole prospect of finding a husband and making a
financially advantageous match never married, and we learn that
that's probably because she didn't want children. She did, after
all, see two of her sisters-in-law die following childbirth and, in
those days, with marriage came babies. But, maybe, she also was happy and content as she was, living closely with her beloved sister, Cassandra. Maybe Cassandra was the love of Jane's life and maybe she was the reason there was no room for a man? Or maybe Jane simply didn't meet the right man? These options are all discussed here. The point of this book is
that it goes into detail and delves into the whys of
Jane's life but- as Lucy Worsley has pointed out herself- history is
expressed via the point of view of the writer, so we are really only
getting her opinions. Even so, it is nice to know them.
The
main point that came across for me was that Jane's work is rather
tongue-in-cheek and must be read with a sense of humour. She
cleverly described situations that were very real to her, as she
witnessed them and, like many writers (myself included) based her
novels upon real life. But we mustn't regard them with too much
seriousness and, with a little education and reviewing them on this note, they can come across as almost satirical.
I
love finding out about social history- in other words, what people
got up to on a day to day basis, what they ate, what they wore, etc.
This biography delves into that and paints a good portrait of what
life would have been like for Jane during Georgian times. As a lover
of history I certainly enjoyed reading this, but we must always
remember that no-one will ever know the exact truth. As to what Jane
was thinking, we might learn that by reading her novels.
A
rich and detailed book, tailor-made for Jane lovers. Am I one such a
person? Not really. I like her work but prefer something a bit
darker. BUT, if you delve beneath the pleasantries of her work, it
is all there- you just have to dig deeper and separate and define what is reality and what is an eyebrows-raised, crafty dig. And we must not forget that Jane paved the
way for later female writers to 'come out' and write and have a
profession- as they are still doing today. The book makes the point
that we women owe a lot to Jane- and we do. This was a very detailed biography,
offered up a rounded description of Jane's life, and I wholeheartedly
recommend it.
Up the road from the Jane Austen Centre is 25 Gay Street, the house where Jane lived for a few months after her father's death.
Here is my Bath review blog link:-
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