The Real Jane Austen : A Life in Small Things

A vivacious portrait. . . . Byrnes Austen emerges as a worldly woman, profoundly enmeshed in a wider world than shes often acknowledged to occupy. This is an Austen with a sense for the political as well as for the finer points of sensibilityand one who will be unfamiliar (though never unrecognizable) to many readers. Publishers Weekly

In The Real Jane Austen, acclaimed literary biographer Paula Byrne provides the most intimate and revealing portrait yet of a beloved but complex novelist.

Just as letters and tokens in Jane Austens novels often signal key turning points in the narrative, Byrne explores the small things a scrap of paper, a gold chain, an ivory miniature that held significance in Austens personal and creative life.

Byrne transports us to different worlds, from the East Indies to revolutionary Paris, and to different events, from a high society scandal to a case of petty shoplifting. In this ground-breaking biography, Austen is set on a wider stage than ever before, revealing a well-traveled and politically aware writer important aspects of her artistic development that have long been overlooked.

The Real Jane Austen is a fresh, compelling, and surprising biography of the author of some of our most enduring classic books from Pride and Prejudice to Sense and Sensibility, Emma to Persuasion and a vivid evocation of the world that shaped her.