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Title: Jane Austen's Letters by Jane Austen, Deirdre Le Faye ISBN: 0-19-283297-2 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Must Have for the English Regency reference shelf
Comment: Primary sources are always the best in understanding the mindset of a period. Here we have a thick collection of Jane Austen's letters, which have been very well annotated by the editor. The contrast between the Memoirs of Harriette Wilson (who lived in the same period, published by the famous courtesan in 1825) are hilarious. Witty but staidly Anglican Jane at one point savagely attacks the very high aristocrats romping their scandalous way through Harriette's world, that "race of Pagets". Jane Austen's letters let us have a glimpses of what daily life in the English gentry and aristocratic class was like in Regency England; seeemingly trivial details such as the buying of Wedgwood china with the personal crest, buying the breakfast set separate to the other china sets (longing to see what a Regency breakfast set looked like! The breakfast set is mentioned in Sense and Sensibility) are actually very difficult to find out about, it is not something historians generally write about. The notes by the editor are fascinating and could lead to further research, for example how did one lord prove his title after being a Dublin potboy? And the gentleman who divorced his wife after the proper lady decided to become a professional actress...usually it was the other way around, the actress became a proper lady! The biographical details added by the editor on various gentry/aristocratic families mentioned in Jane Austen's letters are very tantalising.
Rating: 5
Summary: A must for all fans
Comment: This collection of Jane Austens letters is a must for all fans who would like a peek inside the mind of the author. It is the most extensive collection to date and Le Faye has done quite a lot to make it as accessible as possible. It features all of the surviving letters from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra plus some letters to some of her brothers, a niece, etc. It also includes three letters from Cassandra to various relatives from the time immediately after Jane Austens death and so also shows Jane Austen from another persons perspective. The only drawback of this book is that all the notes are in the back, arranged by the number of each letter, and so you find yourself flipping back and forth quite a lot but it is an annoyance well worth putting up with.
I have read quite a few bibliographies on Jane Austen but there is no competing with her own words. If you have any kind of interest in Jane Austen as a person then you should definitely get this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: An absolute must for Austen fans
Comment: Proving that Austen was as fun and readable in her everyday letters as she was in her novels. These letters (about 160 of them) are great fun to read. The biting wit of her novels is clearly evident here.
As pretty much most people know Jane Austen was incredibly close to her sister Cassandra and most of these letters are from Jane to Cassandra while they were separated. After Jane's death Cassandra destroyed goodness knows how many of Jane's letters and all of her own - so this small collection is all that is left - along with some to her neices and other family members.
The collection was first put together in the 1930's by Chapman, but Le Faye has uncovered a few more since then (as I understand it).
The book is great value for money. Le Faye has done a phenomemal job in providing all the support information you will need to read and understand any aspect of the letters. They are footnoted clearly. There is a biographical and Topographical index in here - along with a chronology of Jane's life, and a chronology of the letters themselves - and if all else fails there is a comprehensive index.
For the history buff there is a great amount of really useful everyday infomration - for instance in 1813 apples were scarce in the country and cost 1 pound 5 shillings a sack. And insight into Jane herself - in April 1811 she is searching for a novel called 'Self Control' but says "I am always afraid of finding a clever novel too clever." Perhaps something that guided her own writing.
Over 600 pages of great value reading, pure pleasure and wealth of information.
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Title: Jane Austen : A Life by Claire Tomalin ISBN: 0679766766 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 27 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Jane Austen : The World of Her Novels by Deirdre Le Faye ISBN: 0810932857 Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The History of England: From the Reign of Henry the 4th to the Death of Charles the 1st by Jane Austen, A. S. Byatt, Deirdre Le Faye ISBN: 1565120558 Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen by Edward Copeland, Juliet McMaster ISBN: 0521498678 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Lady Susan ; The Watsons ; Sanditon (Penguin English Library) by Jane Austen, Margaret Drabble ISBN: 0140431020 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: March, 1975 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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