The Life of Jane Austen - Softcover

Halperin, Professor John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801855098 ISBN 13: 9780801855092

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Featuring a new preface by the author, this paperback edition of John Halperin's acclaimed and controversial biography moves beyond the usually vague account of Austen's life and away from the serene and untroubled image of Austen created by a protective family. In The Life ofJane Austen, Halperin reveals a robust, vigorous, and at times difficult woman with a large and diverse circle of family and acquaintances. He documents her troubled relationship with a hypochondriacal mother and her frank dislike of the sister-in-law who usurped her childhood home, sheds new light on the shadowy existence of a retarded older brother, and sets forth in greater detail than ever before the number and nature of Austen's relations to her suitors, the romantic passages of her life, and her attitude about childbearing.

Making fuller use of Austen's correspondence than previous biographers, Halperin shows us the costs exacted on a sensitive and critical personality by a society--and, frequently, a family--that paid too little attention to the predicament of unmarried women, especially those with inadequate financial means.

About this title

Book Description:

Making fuller use of Austen's correspondence than previous biographers, Halperin shows us the costs exacted on a sensitive and critical personality by a society--and, frequently, a family--that paid too little attention to the predicament of unmarried women, especially those with inadequate financial means.

About the Author:

John Halperin is Centennial Professor of English at Vanderbilt University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is the author of Trollope and Politics, Gissing: A Life in Books, C. P. Snow: An Oral Biography, Jane Austen's Lovers, Novelists in their Youth, and Eminent Georgians.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0801855098
• ISBN 13: 9780801855092
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 432