📖 The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

Who was the real Jane Austen? A retiring spinster who confined her novels to the small canvas of village life? Or a strong-minded woman who took the bold decision to remain unmarried and fashion herself as a professional writer? Bestselling author Paula Byrne explores the forces that shaped Britain's most beloved novelist. Byrne uses a highly innovative technique whereby each chapter begins with an object that conjures up a key moment or theme in Austen's life and work - a silhouette, a vellum notebook, a topaz cross, a laptop writing box, a royalty cheque, a bathing machine and many more. The woman who emerges in this biography is far tougher, more socially and politically aware, and altogether more modern than the conventional picture of 'dear Aunt Jane' allows. Published to coincide with the bicentenary of Pride and Prejudice, this lively and scholarly book brings Jane Austen brilliantly into the twenty-first century.