Rating: 
Summary: Could this be the last word on Jane Austen?
Review: Jane Austen's stocks rise higher and higher as the years go by. Several of her novels continue to feature in bestseller lists, film and TV adaptations of them abound, and biographies appear regularly. This masterly biography, by Claire Tomalin, is the seventh Jane Austen biography I have read in the past twenty years.Claire Tomalin examines her elusive subject from very possible perspective. The Austen genealogy is probed, every known neighbor and witness and every witness's evidence is weighed and balanced, Jane Austen's writings are examined and assessed, and the situations of her brothers' living descendants are sometimes mentioned. Publishing and republishing histories are given, a family tree is included, and the many illustrations are given punchy captions. Gracing (or disfiguring) the cover is the only known pictorial representation of Jane Austen, an unfinished sketch done by her sister Cassandra, a sketch that was not discovered until long after Jane and Cassandra had died and which a niece said was "hideously unlike" her aunt. Don't assume from all this that the book is merely an exhaustive effort of plodding detection. Sensitive and intelligent guesswork is here. Brilliant deductions are made. What is known, for example is that the Austen daughters and their parents had no permanent home during the "unproductive" decade when Jane was in her 20s and early 30s. What is also known is that Jane Austen had drafted three of her novels before this, as well as the novella "Lady Susan". The fact that Claire Tomalin deduces from this is that Jane Austen must have protected and cared for her manuscripts like a mother with newborn babies. Carriers would have been unreliable, cases of paper could break and spill, and a penniless young woman could hardly command premium quality cartage. Other known facts are sometimes given a creative spin. You will read an especially creative and imaginative account of Jane Austen receiving, accepting and then rejecting a proposal of marriage from Harris Biggs. While all this is very satisfying, the effect of this substantial biography is to leave me still unable to perfectly "place" Jane Austen, an effect that will probably prompt me to read a further seven biographies of her.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Lively, insightful and entertaining. This Austen biography is a treasure
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: This book is informative and entertaining, but I think it dwells too much on Jane Austen's relatives and not enough on Jane herself.
Rating: 
Summary: Judging JA in the light of feminism
Review: This book is well researched, but draws some very silly assumptions, beginning with the almost Freudian obsession with her being placed with a wet nurse. There are some very good insights but most of the commentary (which is not always easy to differentiate from the fact) is unnecessary (and questionable) opinion. My biggest complaints are these: (1) the book should be entitled Eliza de Feuillide: A life, as JA is sometimes a minor character or not mentioned at all for pages at a time. Eliza is interesting, but not what I bought the book for. (2) Her mentions of Fanny Price are all very politically correct for the late 20th century but I doubt they have anything at all to do with the way JA saw her. She says she is "intolerant of sinners, whom she is ready to cast aside, just as Mr. Collins recommends that the Bennets should cast aside the sinful Lydia and Wickham. Austen, the novelist, was interested in the way religion could be invoked in different causes and practiced in different styles..." This entire statement IMHO makes no sense. Mr. Collins did recommend that the Wickhams be "cast aside" and is roundly mocked for his intolerance by Austen. FP on the other hand is not casting aside a sinner, she is chosing not to ally herself in the most intimate way with one whom she has no reason to trust. That is not intolerance. That is prudence. If the author looked more objectively at the issues, I think she would see a huge difference. I believe that the last sentence in the above quote should read "Tomalin, the novelist, is interested in the way religion could be invoked in different causes and practiced in different styles..."
Rating:
Summary: Judging JA in the light of feminism
Review: This book is well researched, but draws some very silly assumptions, beginning with the almost Freudian obsession with her being placed with a wet nurse. There are some very good insights but most of the commentary (which is not always easy to differentiate from the fact) is unnecessary (and questionable) opinion. My biggest complaints are these: (1) the book should be entitled Eliza de Feuillide: A life, as JA is sometimes a minor character or not mentioned at all for pages at a time. Eliza is interesting, but not what I bought the book for. (2) Her mentions of Fanny Price are all very politically correct for the late 20th century but I doubt they have anything at all to do with the way JA saw her. She says she is "intolerant of sinners, whom she is ready to cast aside, just as Mr. Collins recommends that the Bennets should cast aside the sinful Lydia and Wickham. Austen, the novelist, was interested in the way religion could be invoked in different causes and practiced in different styles..." This entire statement IMHO makes no sense. Mr. Collins did recommend that the Wickhams be "cast aside" and is roundly mocked for his intolerance by Austen. FP on the other hand is not casting aside a sinner, she is chosing not to ally herself in the most intimate way with one whom she has no reason to trust. That is not intolerance. That is prudence. If the author looked more objectively at the issues, I think she would see a huge difference. I believe that the last sentence in the above quote should read "Tomalin, the novelist, is interested in the way religion could be invoked in different causes and practiced in different styles..."
Rating: 
Summary: A great treat
Review: Tomalin wrote this book in part as a response to those (like Austen's brother and cousin) who noted the great novelist's life was one of little incident. Despite her noble intentions, Tomalin doesn't prove anything to the contrary--Austen's life was pretty routine, and we have so few documents pertaining to the particulars of it (since her sister and niece burned so many of her letters) that we have yet to find a biographer who can shed great light on her inestimable genius. Tomalin, however, gives us a full and beautifully detailed analysis of what we CAN learn about Austen's life from the documents which are still extant. Best of all, she enriches this information by presenting rich, gossipy details about the many fascinating people whom Austen knew and loved. The somewhat nouveau riche society (pretending to be landed gentry) of late eighteenth-century makes for reading almsot as much fun as Austen's own books, and Tomalin writes with great verve. This is a marvelous read.
| 
