Jane Austen at Home: A Biography

By Lucy Worsley

Book Overview

"Worsley offers us much that Austen's admirers wish to know...with humor and poignancy and common sense, just as Austen would have wished." --Amy Bloom, New York Times Book Review

Take a trip back to Jane Austen's world and the many places she lived as historian Lucy Worsley visits Austen's childhood home, her schools, her holiday accommodations, the houses--both grand and small--of the relations upon whom she was dependent, and the home she shared with her mother and sister towards the end of her life. In places like Steventon Parsonage, Godmersham Park, Chawton House and a small rented house in Winchester, Worsley discovers a Jane Austen very different from the one who famously lived a "life without incident."

Worsley examines the rooms, spaces and possessions which mattered to her, and the varying ways in which homes are used in her novels as both places of pleasure and as prisons. She shows readers a passionate Jane Austen who fought for her freedom, a woman who had at least five marriage prospects, but--in the end--a woman who refused to settle for anything less than Mr. Darcy.

Illustrated with two sections of color plates, Lucy Worsley's Jane Austen at Home is a richly entertaining and illuminating new book about one of the world's favorite novelists and one of the subjects she returned to over and over in her unforgettable novels: home.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250799961
• ISBN13: 9781250799968
• Release Date: August 2021
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Jane Austen!!! Writer!!! Real Person!!! Exclamation Points!!!

I have a deep respect for Lucy Worsley. She is a brilliant writer and historian. She makes history accessible and fascinating for a modern readership. Something I greatly appreciated about this book is the removal of Victorian whitewash, which has always created a confusing contrast between Jane Austen the woman and Jane Austen the novelist. A contemporary perspective will inevitably shape each generation's interpretation of Jane - or any work or author. The book is a wealth of information about the life of the renowned author. By situating Austen within the physical context of her humble abodes, this book seeks to reevaluate her authorship and provide a more informed understanding of her life. This method affords a deeper understanding of the circumstances in which Austen lived and wrote, while also illuminating aspects of Regency England's social history. Although the content was engaging, I found it to be challenging to read. Possibly due to the pacing or the presence of passages that solely convey Worsley's opinion. In addition to that its resemblance to a gossip rag at times and the excessive use of exclamation points was totally unnecessary. It was interesting but maybe it just wasn't my cup of tea. And, that's okay. Perhaps it will be to the next reader's tastes.