Description
Book SynopsisJon Spence's fascinating biography paints an intimate portrait of Jane Austen. "Becoming Jane Austen" gives the fullest account we have of her falling in love with the charming young Irishman Tom Lefroy, a relationship that was more serious and enduring than previously believed and one that had a profound effect upon her life and her art. The elegant narrative examines Austen's other emotional attachments, building a picture of her world as she herself perceived and experienced it. It is a world familiar to us from her novels, but in "Becoming Jane Austen", Jane herself is the heroine.
Trade ReviewMention in The Bookseller
'It is the small incidents that Jon Spence puts under the microscope in his entertaining and sensitive biography.' 'Jon Spence is painstaking, delicate, full of insight - a somehow fitting, friendly biographer.' ~ Joceline Bury, Jane Austen's Regency World Magazine -- Joceline Bury
'Jon Spence's book has all the virtues of a well-researched and original study. Hard to write anything new about Jane Austen these days, but Spence, in his own quiet and unobtrusive way, has done it.' ~ John Bayley -- John Bayley
"Becoming Jane Austen gives the fullest account we have of her falling in love with the charming young Irishman Tom Lefroy." -- Lucy Whitson, Evening Express
Review in Eighteenth Century Current Bibliography, October 2007
"Fascinating...full of details that add color and texture to what we know of Austen." --The Record-Courier -- Mary Louise Ruehr
"Spence meticulously unpacks the evidence available to him...and lays the probablilities before us in writing that is charged with its own kind of electricity. His great achievement is that by the end of Becoming Jane Austen it is indeed possible to see how Jane became Jane Austen, the great writer of English literature." -- Sydney Morning Herald
mention in 'Books on Radio' -- The Bookseller
'A delightful book ... I have enjoyed it immensely.' -- John Bayley CBE, Writer and Literary Critic
'Jon Spence's 'Becoming Jane Austen' is one of the best half-dozen books published on Austen in the last quarter century.' 'This is a book full of wisdom about [Jane Austen] and her art.' Joseph Wiesenfarth, JASNA News -- Joseph Wiesenfarth
'Becoming Jane Austen' is a good, traditional biography. Clearly written, jargon-free and pleasant to read, it covers familiar ground without any sense of fatigue and makes the most of the material.' ~ Peter Washington, The Literary Review -- Peter Washington
'Jon Spence has given us the most cogent portrait of Jane Austen's literary life to date.' ~ Julia Barrett, author of 'Presumption', 'The Third Sister' and 'Jane Austen's "Charlotte"', British Heritage Magazine -- Julia Barrett * British Heritage Magazine *
Title mentioned, April 2007 -- Stephanie Cross * Observer *
"This biography does uncover some interesting facts about the novelist's antecedents and family, showing them to be just as obsessed with fortune and gentility as the Dashwoods and the Bennets." * Tablet, The *
Table of ContentsIllustrations; New Introduction; Acknowledgements; 1 Legacies; 2 Home; 3 Scenes; 4 The Good Apprentice; 5 History; 6 Love and Art; 7 Place; 8 Ways of Escape; 9 Money; 10 Work; 11 The World; 12 The Body; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
