{"product_id":"jane-austen-a-life-by-hans-willems-3593w","title":"Jane Austen: A Life by Hans Willems","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe great novels of Jane Austen picture a world of civility and reassuring stability. Was this the world she lived in? Not quite, as this fascinating biography shows.The family into which the writer was born were meritocrats struggling in the competitive society of George 3rd. From local archives Claire Tomalin has also reconstructed the lives of her Hampshire neighbours. And there are many surprises too about the writer who deemed herself to be  formidable . A bestseller in hardcover, this was widely acclaimed as the definitive biography of Jane Austen.  An authoritative, graceful, succinct account...which brilliantly illuminates the elusive Jane  Victoria Glendinning  A perfect biography: detailed, witty, warm  Dirk Bogarde n nReviews n nTomalin (The Invisible Woman) solves the problem of preparing yet nanother biography of Jane Austen (1775-1817), a life of no event, nby a familiar formula. At every turn, one meets may have, may nbe and might have. A biographical boon is the large supporting ncast. Tomalin takes 100 pages to get Austen to age 18 by filling in nthe pages with stories about her relatives and neighbors in nHampshire. An entire chapter is devoted to a single Austen nletter'and because few of her letters survive, Tomalin suggests nthat in some years, in a letter-writing age, Austen wrote none nwhatsoever. Such apparent silences are suffused with hypotheses nabout her dreary existence during the long gaps between her teenage nnovelizing and her shrewd, mature works like Emma and Mansfield nPark, which followed the much-delayed publication of Sense and nSensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Tomalin is strikingly nsensitive, however, to Austen's life of social discomfort. In what nis a very personal book, she often resorts to the first person, nwhich fits the speculative approach. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.) nFYI: For reviews of two other Austen biographies published this nyear, see Jane Austen by Valerie Grosvenor Myer in Nonfiction nForecasts (March 10) and Jane Austen by David Nokes (July 7). n nDespite only a few surviving personal papers and letters, no nautobiographical notes, and no diaries written by Jane Austen, nattempts to piece together the life and personality of the author nabound. An experienced biographer, Tomalin makes do by focusing nmore on the Austen family, acquaintances, and friends than on nAusten herself, forthrightly acknowledging, It is only because of nher writing that we think them worth remembering; and yet she is at nalmost every point harder to summon up than any of them...she is as nelusive as a cloud in the night sky. Like David Nokes's recent nbiography, Jane Austen (LJ 9\/1\/97), Tomalin's presents an engaging nstory of the life and times of the Austen family. Although nTomalin's biography is not as detailed as Nokes's, it offers a nfreshness in its attention to, and compassion regarding the nchild-rearing practices of the Austens, the physical demands on nchild-bearing women, and to the portrayal of Austen's will, ndetermination, and energy in her final days. Recommended for nliterature collections for its perspective and minimal nspeculations.'Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, nN.J.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Book Express","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41821272440906,"sku":"3593w","price":12.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/9101\/8826\/files\/3593w.jpg?v=1765478327","url":"https:\/\/www.bookexpress.nz\/products\/jane-austen-a-life-by-hans-willems-3593w","provider":"Book Express","version":"1.0","type":"link"}