Jane Austen at Home: A Biography
By: Lucy Worsley / Narrated by: Ruth Redman, Lucy Worsley
Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
Uhmm… the best JA bio, or… the ONLY JA bio I’ve listened to… YET
Okay, so it’s like this.
I didn’t get into Jane Austen until my 20s when a lovesick friend, weeping the lack of a Mr. Darcy in her life, thrust Pride and Prejudice upon me. I was reticent, then I dipped my toe in, then I was smitten. Instantly upon finishing it, I looked for The Next Jane Austen out there, only to discover that I’d reeeeeally better monitor myself as she had only six completed works out there in print.
And then I discovered audiobooks, where I could get those same books but with an ENDless variety of narrators! HEAVEN!!!
Alas, my shallowness has kept me in Variations of Narrators Audiobooks mode, but it hasn’t led me to aaaany biographies of the author. I KNOW—I’m sooooo ashamed. Which is kinda sorta why I feel a tad hesitant about reviewing Jane Austen at Home… I’ve nothing to compare it to, and other reviewers have said it’s a grand ol’ bio, fits right onto the bookshelf holding the many many many bios of Jane that are out there.
Uhmm…
Dunno about all that; all I can say is that it was jolly decent as far as bios go. I’m more a Memoir person, so my dream is that a diary or a journal of Jane’s is unearthed somewhere along the way. As THAT’S not going to happen, let’s settle down and see what we have here. Why I liked most of it; why there were parts that left me yawning.
First, this is indeed a captivating book for the most part. I dearly loved how author Lucy Worsley shows the utter devotion between Jane and her sister Cassandra. Having a much-loved sister m’self, I was totally taken with that, and did soooo enjoy their missives back and forth to each other.
I also liked how relationships between Jane and others, how events in her life and possible conversations she had/heard, maaaay’ve made it into her novels. Sense and Sensibility very much comes to mind when Jane, her sister, their mother, are left destitute by the death of Mr. Austen, and their upkeep and lives become dependent upon their brothers. Jane had a LOT of brothers, and Edward was loaded, Henry became fairly successful, but all together the lot of them could only kick together 450 pounds a year for the three to live on. And they were all delighted with themselves, and said the women should be tickled pink, happy with their tiny abodes, etc etc. This when the women struggled and were desperately unhappy, never sure how or where they’d live. Which made Home a big deal for Jane.
Home is certainly a theme of the biography, especially Steventon, the vicarage where Jane and Cassandra grew up, and Chawton, the cottage where Jane spent the final bit of her life. But for the most part, this bio feels more like a history—we’re given quite a bit about aaaaaalllll the people who came before in Jane’s family, and we hear a great deal about her father’s brothers, her mother’s family and again I’ll add the etc etc here. That was my least favorite part of the book as, quite frankly, they’re not the individuals I was looking for in the book.
And all those ancestors take up a lot of time in this audiobook, so much so that I got to wondering if I should have gone with my other bio on Jane: The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne. Fortunately, it turns out that Worsley too, after dwelling on all who came before her and their lives, comes to focus on the small things in life that meant so much to Jane. And we get to see her great sensitivity, her shyness (Until she was NOT—and then she’d come out with quite the irreverent repartee!). Plus, I did come to absolutely love how strong her friendships were, how she valued women.
Worsley does her best when she reframes what other biographers have written about Jane, that she lived a quiet and uneventful life. Or that she felt caged in and screamed inside her head. She firmly plants Jane as a woman of the Georgian era, aware of her own strength, but living firmly within society’s parameters and norms, and not screeching about the unfairness in situations as a modern woman would chafe and screech. I did appreciate that view, and it made me feel that Jane led a more satisfying life, despite the dumb brothers.
I bark against the brothers, but this bio shows it to be a loving and tight knit family, a witty and engaged family, all always fond of getting together. That a couple of the brothers wed women who could become shrews at times is unfortunate. But Jane never really took it to heart.
Ruth Redman narrates this very well, tho’ at times she comes off as a skilled documentary narrator—a tad slow, a tad dry, which was unfortunate for the duller parts. But all in all, I thought she did well. EsPECially when it came to those letters being read: The words between Jane and Cassandra crackle and sparkle—I’m so very glad that so very many were utilized for the book.
This did have me hankering for another bio as it had me loving Jane, and the verrrrrrry ending had me in tears. But I do think it might be some time before I hit Byrne’s audiobook.
What can I say? There are just soooo many wonderful versions/narrators of her books out there, too little time!
PLUS—There’s FanFiction! Yesssssssss!!!!
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