Becoming Jane Austen

I bought this book because I'm preparing to teach a Jane Austen class. Spence makes some interesting points and does a good job of backing them up. I don't think we can take everything as fact, but he does support his arguments very well. Unfortunately, there is so much left up to guesswork when it comes to Austen. When it comes to Austen biographies, this book is very easy and enjoyable to read. It reads more like a novel than a biography. The movie that is based on this book takes a few more liberties than the books does. Considering all of the books that I have used in preparing my class, this is one of my favorites.

Very good book---I have read 6 other bios on Jane Austen this book was one of the best.

. . . it's time for BECOMING JANE AUSTEN to get the readership it deserves! If you adore Jane Austen's novels but aren't really excited about reading a biography or a collection of her letters, this is the book to get. I've never read anything quite like it -- it combines skilled biography with excerpts from thousands of family letters, all the while tying the whole thing together as a coherent and very, very readable story of a fascinating family and a funny, smart young writer. Spence has done such a great job with the primary source materials (wills, juvenilia from JA's brothers as well as herself, and all those letters) that you really do get the feeling you're finally hearing the true story, instead of the official version the Austen descendants developed for early biographers. I'm not going to spoil the big surprise in this book, but suffice it to say that you will be intrigued -- and convinced -- of events in Jane Austen's life that have not been discussed elsewhere. And Spence's style, which will remind you more than a little of Jane Austen's, makes for easy, enjoyable reading. He has a nice sense of irony and picks up on subtleties in the letters, for instance, that a straight-through reading of the correspondence would probably never yield. (Not to me, anyway!) This is literary biography at its very finest: impeccably researched, invitingly presented, and true to the spirit of its subject. I'm almost afraid to see the movie -- but not at all surprised that Hollywood snapped up this gem of a story.

How narrow was Jane Austen's world? She has generally been viewed as writing from her observations in the parlor. Spence broadens that view and does an excellent job of presenting Jane in the context of her wide circle of family and friends. He weaves in the incidents and issues they encounter and then shows how Jane transformed them in her fiction. One of the fascinating points is how often she disguised the person by inverting the gender. My one criticism is that the genealogical charts should have been placed in a better position, since I constantly referred back to them. They could also have been even more extensive with maybe even a listing of the people in her life. I re-read Austen's books every few years and so I am very familiar with her work. This book provided new insight to me. I will re-read Sanditon in particular for his critic of this last work. The constant financial uncertainty Jane faced comes out strongly in the book. At the time of her death she had received some money, but still faced uncertainty and was unaware of the full extent of her success as a novelist.

My only regret is that I borrowed this book from the library instead of buying it outright. Author Jon Spence has done a remarkable job in detailing Jane Austen's life, and there are many interesting tidbits that bring you closer to the mind of this 19th century writer. What strikes me most is Spence's knack for fluid detail with words that capture from the start. He presents an excellent account of the times Austen lived in and an organized melody of her personal life from letters she wrote to her sister Cassandra. Spence obviously did his homework, and we are fortunate to have her life viewed as if we were a fly on the wall. If you only read one book on Austen, make it this one.