What do you think?
Rate this book
Penguin Lives
Jane Austen: A Life
With the same sensitivity and artfulness that are the trademarks of her award-winning novels, Carol Shields explores the life of a writer whose own novels have engaged and delighted readers for the past two hundred years. In Jane Austen , Shields follows this superb and beloved novelist from her early family life in Steventown to her later years in Bath, her broken engagement, and her intense relationship with her sister Cassandra. She reveals both the very private woman and the acclaimed author behind the enduring classics Sense and Sensibility , Pride and Prejudice , and Emma . With its fascinating insights into the writing process from an award–winning novelist, Carol Shields’s magnificent biography of Jane Austen is also a compelling meditation on how great fiction is created.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
48 people are currently reading
2603 people want to read
About the author
Carol Shields
71 books664 followersCarol Ann Shields was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her successful 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award. Her novel Swann won the Best Novel Arthur Ellis Award in 1988.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 284 reviews
January 26, 2021
“Austen’s short life may have been lived in relative privacy, but her novels show her to be a citizen, and certainly a spectator, of a far wider world.”
Almost two years ago to this day, I was dazzled by Lucy Worsley’s biography of Jane Austen, titled Jane Austen at Home. I thought it was quite thorough and informative. I had not known much about one of my favorite authors at the time I picked that one up. Considering the fact that there is not a wealth of information regarding Jane Austen in general, I wasn’t sure that I would gain too much more by reading this slim offering by Carol Shields. And I have to admit, I didn’t necessarily learn a ton more. But that’s not to say I didn’t hugely enjoy reading about her all over again! I imagine that’s what happens when you’re a true fangirl!
“It might be argued that all literature is ultimately about family, the creation of structures – drama, poetry, fiction, that reflect our immediate and randomly assigned circle of others, what families do to us and how they can be re-imagined or transcended.”
While Worsley’s book examines Austen’s writing from the context of her homes, Shields’ biography focuses more on her family relationships and her social connections. She offers some insight into Austen’s likely desire to someday marry in order to become a more independent woman. A family of modest means would not be able to provide for the level of self-sufficiency a brilliant mind like Jane’s would so desperately want and need. She explores the writing process and the characters in her books. Some readers look at her novels through the lens of marriage and what that would have meant to a woman during Austen’s era. Carol Shields does this as well, but she makes another point that I find equally intriguing to contemplate:
“There is a sense in which Jane Austen wrote not so much about marriage as about the tension between parents and children, the inevitable rupture between generations and the destruction that carelessness and inattention to these bonds can bring about. We are led inevitably back to the question of her own parents, and the glazed cleverness, and perhaps care, with which she covered the Austen biographical tracks.”
I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s novels, but am due for a re-read of all of them at this point in my life. I would love to evaluate them this time around with the above theory more firmly in mind. Not only that, I’m dearly overdue to pick up one of Carol Shields’ novels! If she pens fiction as compellingly as she writes non-fiction, then I’m in for a treat. This biography is a must-read for any devoted Jane Austen fan. I highly recommend Lucy Worsley’s work as well, which I have reviewed here: Jane Austen at Home
“For all the body’s powers and vulnerability, her novels demonstrate that, for her, the real dance of life lies in language and in understanding.”
Almost two years ago to this day, I was dazzled by Lucy Worsley’s biography of Jane Austen, titled Jane Austen at Home. I thought it was quite thorough and informative. I had not known much about one of my favorite authors at the time I picked that one up. Considering the fact that there is not a wealth of information regarding Jane Austen in general, I wasn’t sure that I would gain too much more by reading this slim offering by Carol Shields. And I have to admit, I didn’t necessarily learn a ton more. But that’s not to say I didn’t hugely enjoy reading about her all over again! I imagine that’s what happens when you’re a true fangirl!
“It might be argued that all literature is ultimately about family, the creation of structures – drama, poetry, fiction, that reflect our immediate and randomly assigned circle of others, what families do to us and how they can be re-imagined or transcended.”
While Worsley’s book examines Austen’s writing from the context of her homes, Shields’ biography focuses more on her family relationships and her social connections. She offers some insight into Austen’s likely desire to someday marry in order to become a more independent woman. A family of modest means would not be able to provide for the level of self-sufficiency a brilliant mind like Jane’s would so desperately want and need. She explores the writing process and the characters in her books. Some readers look at her novels through the lens of marriage and what that would have meant to a woman during Austen’s era. Carol Shields does this as well, but she makes another point that I find equally intriguing to contemplate:
“There is a sense in which Jane Austen wrote not so much about marriage as about the tension between parents and children, the inevitable rupture between generations and the destruction that carelessness and inattention to these bonds can bring about. We are led inevitably back to the question of her own parents, and the glazed cleverness, and perhaps care, with which she covered the Austen biographical tracks.”
I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s novels, but am due for a re-read of all of them at this point in my life. I would love to evaluate them this time around with the above theory more firmly in mind. Not only that, I’m dearly overdue to pick up one of Carol Shields’ novels! If she pens fiction as compellingly as she writes non-fiction, then I’m in for a treat. This biography is a must-read for any devoted Jane Austen fan. I highly recommend Lucy Worsley’s work as well, which I have reviewed here: Jane Austen at Home
“For all the body’s powers and vulnerability, her novels demonstrate that, for her, the real dance of life lies in language and in understanding.”
July 23, 2019
I had recently read "Jane Austen at Home", by Lucy Worsley, which was an excellent biography of Austen using the homes she had lived in as the catalyst for exploring her life and novels. I had no intention of reading another biography, until I saw this one at a used book sale. I bought it because it was written by Carol Shields, who is a favorite novelist of mine.
Shield's book contains much of the same facts of Jane's life, but rounds out her personality by concentrating more on her family relationships, her loves and disappointments, and of course, her "children", her novels. For me, it added another layer to the little that is known about her, but also, to the whys and hows and whens of the six novels she wrote in her short lifetime. It increased my desire to re-read them all.
Shield's book contains much of the same facts of Jane's life, but rounds out her personality by concentrating more on her family relationships, her loves and disappointments, and of course, her "children", her novels. For me, it added another layer to the little that is known about her, but also, to the whys and hows and whens of the six novels she wrote in her short lifetime. It increased my desire to re-read them all.
April 3, 2016
At my imaginary table of "favorite dead writers in the sky," Ms. Jane Austen would have the distinction of being the only female seated at a table of males, which would include William Shakespeare, J.D. Salinger, John Steinbeck, and E.E. Cummings.
I'm a woman, so it annoys me that my very own dream table is almost completely filled by men, but I think we've all figured out by now that, statistically speaking, women just haven't had the opportunity until very recently to make their literary marks on the world.
It's not that I don't like men; I'm in fact a great fan of them as a general rule, but even when a male writer comes close to prognosticating my position on this planet, he still can't articulate my experience the way Ms. Austen can. I live far from an eighteenth century England, but from her cloistered place in the world, writing from her gilded, or rather her rusted cage, she so adeptly captures the frustrations of the limitations of her world. And, these limitations still translate in many ways to my world. And your world.
I have, until now, avoided reading any biographies of Ms. Austen. To be honest, I'm reluctant to read biographies of any kind, and I've always been a gal who prefers to focus on the output versus the input. But, when I saw that Carol Shields, an excellent writer of fiction, took on the task, I decided to give this one a chance.
Shields has made this incredibly readable, and I believe it honors who Jane was at her core: a writer. I learned more about Jane Austen, her life, and her process, and I felt overall that it was an incredibly positive book about the importance of writing and writers.
Nicely done.
I'm a woman, so it annoys me that my very own dream table is almost completely filled by men, but I think we've all figured out by now that, statistically speaking, women just haven't had the opportunity until very recently to make their literary marks on the world.
It's not that I don't like men; I'm in fact a great fan of them as a general rule, but even when a male writer comes close to prognosticating my position on this planet, he still can't articulate my experience the way Ms. Austen can. I live far from an eighteenth century England, but from her cloistered place in the world, writing from her gilded, or rather her rusted cage, she so adeptly captures the frustrations of the limitations of her world. And, these limitations still translate in many ways to my world. And your world.
I have, until now, avoided reading any biographies of Ms. Austen. To be honest, I'm reluctant to read biographies of any kind, and I've always been a gal who prefers to focus on the output versus the input. But, when I saw that Carol Shields, an excellent writer of fiction, took on the task, I decided to give this one a chance.
Shields has made this incredibly readable, and I believe it honors who Jane was at her core: a writer. I learned more about Jane Austen, her life, and her process, and I felt overall that it was an incredibly positive book about the importance of writing and writers.
Nicely done.
November 3, 2015
Carol Shields writes novels mostly, and very good ones at that. She won a Pulitzer Prize for The Stone Diaries. This one is a biography, a biography of one of the most beloved authors in English literature, Jane Austen. Austen, even with her success, lived a plain and simple life. Some biographers have embellished the details of her life, romanticized it to the point that Austen herself would probably laugh. But Shields interpretation is simplistic, and one gets the feeling more realistic. This well written account give us a different look at this 19th century enigma that was and is Jane Austen.
March 2, 2008
I enjoyed this slim biography of Jane Austen. Shields does not manufacture a mysterious past for her, but instead focuses on Austen as a writer. It's a less romantic, but more realistic and respectful approach than movies like "Becoming Jane."
She theorizes that Austen's novels are about a search for a home, written in a time when women's only available path was through marriage. From that came the difficult moral choices of staying true to one's self or accepting financial security through an inferior marriage. Through this lens she reviews what is known of Austen life, sorting out the rumor from the more limited truth.
Shields was a wonderful writer. I recently reread The Stone Diaries, and read her final novel "Unless" for the first time. In both novels, she details the lives of ordinary women, pointing to deeper issues of aging, loss, love, and what it means to be a complete person. Directly and indirectly, she challenges a presumption that serious books are about men.
In my mind she's the ideal biographer for Austen. A writer herself and devoted fan, she highlights the universal themes in Austen's novels, which have humor and and carefully drawn characters, but the moral choices and bravery of ordinary people make them classics. Shields died, in around 2003, of breast cancer, the same disease she claims ended Austen's life. With her and with Austen, I miss the novels that were yet to come.
She theorizes that Austen's novels are about a search for a home, written in a time when women's only available path was through marriage. From that came the difficult moral choices of staying true to one's self or accepting financial security through an inferior marriage. Through this lens she reviews what is known of Austen life, sorting out the rumor from the more limited truth.
Shields was a wonderful writer. I recently reread The Stone Diaries, and read her final novel "Unless" for the first time. In both novels, she details the lives of ordinary women, pointing to deeper issues of aging, loss, love, and what it means to be a complete person. Directly and indirectly, she challenges a presumption that serious books are about men.
In my mind she's the ideal biographer for Austen. A writer herself and devoted fan, she highlights the universal themes in Austen's novels, which have humor and and carefully drawn characters, but the moral choices and bravery of ordinary people make them classics. Shields died, in around 2003, of breast cancer, the same disease she claims ended Austen's life. With her and with Austen, I miss the novels that were yet to come.
May 30, 2022
Being a "Janite" myself, I enjoyed this Austen bio - it's both sad & fascinating to think of how she managed to write at all, between the time period & her family, and with so little support. She made such a lasting impact on a world that she was so isolated from...
April 25, 2018
An interesting short bio and an enjoyable read! Though little is known about Jane Austen, Carol Shields followed up possible circumstances behind Jane’s writing and theories of what influenced the speculations surrounding her life.
I found it curious the author referred to sister Cassandra as having a large presence over Jane and there’s a few observations about Jane’s demeanor that surprised me.
I recommend this to any Jane Austen fan. 4 ☆
I found it curious the author referred to sister Cassandra as having a large presence over Jane and there’s a few observations about Jane’s demeanor that surprised me.
I recommend this to any Jane Austen fan. 4 ☆
January 24, 2013
Amazing that so short a book could be so unsatisfactory for so many reasons. Just a few examples:
Shields insists all throughout the book that Austen "longed" all her life to be married, and that any happiness she managed to find was because she learned to live with disappointment. (Shields also mentions how annoying it is when readers conflate a fiction writer's life with her writing, right after "explaining" how much Austen has in common with the heroine of "Persuasion.")
Hold this book carefully if you do read it. If you tip it the least bit, all the billions of "Austen must have"s, "Austen would have"s, and "Austen surely"s will fall out and break your foot.
Shields hates "Lady Susan." HATES it. How on earth can anyone who loves Austen enough to want to write even a brief biography of her not enjoy this darkly hilarious novella?
Shields describes the money left to Austen's sister, Cassandra Austen, as not very much -- "certainly not enough to live on." The sum was a thousand pounds. A YEAR. The main character family (mother, two grown daughters, and one teenager) in "Sense and Sensibility" manage to live in cozy gentility, employing three servants, on 500 a year. A thousand pounds a year for a single woman with no dependents would have been *ample.*
Shields says that Emma is her favorite Austen heroine. She describes Mr. Knightley as drawing up lists of books for Emma to read. In fact, Mr. Knightley mentions admiring the lists of books Emma drew up for *herself* to read at various times of her life. The reader gets the feeling that she spent more time writing these lists than she ever did reading. Mr. Knightley saved one of the lists for some time, but he *never* wrote one for her.
At the end of the book, Shields offers a bizarre list of body parts Austen never mentions in her novels, including toes.
I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that halfway through this book, I was begging Jane Austen to die and put me out of my misery.
Shields insists all throughout the book that Austen "longed" all her life to be married, and that any happiness she managed to find was because she learned to live with disappointment. (Shields also mentions how annoying it is when readers conflate a fiction writer's life with her writing, right after "explaining" how much Austen has in common with the heroine of "Persuasion.")
Hold this book carefully if you do read it. If you tip it the least bit, all the billions of "Austen must have"s, "Austen would have"s, and "Austen surely"s will fall out and break your foot.
Shields hates "Lady Susan." HATES it. How on earth can anyone who loves Austen enough to want to write even a brief biography of her not enjoy this darkly hilarious novella?
Shields describes the money left to Austen's sister, Cassandra Austen, as not very much -- "certainly not enough to live on." The sum was a thousand pounds. A YEAR. The main character family (mother, two grown daughters, and one teenager) in "Sense and Sensibility" manage to live in cozy gentility, employing three servants, on 500 a year. A thousand pounds a year for a single woman with no dependents would have been *ample.*
Shields says that Emma is her favorite Austen heroine. She describes Mr. Knightley as drawing up lists of books for Emma to read. In fact, Mr. Knightley mentions admiring the lists of books Emma drew up for *herself* to read at various times of her life. The reader gets the feeling that she spent more time writing these lists than she ever did reading. Mr. Knightley saved one of the lists for some time, but he *never* wrote one for her.
At the end of the book, Shields offers a bizarre list of body parts Austen never mentions in her novels, including toes.
I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that halfway through this book, I was begging Jane Austen to die and put me out of my misery.
June 29, 2016
I read this book as part of the Dead Writers Society's Genre Fiction Challenge for June 2016 and the Literary Birthday Challenge for 2016. At this point I am wishing I chose the other book for the genre challenge.
I don't know what to say here besides this entire book read as someone who seemed to think that Jane Austen was not that attractive, was bitter and angry that she was a spinster, and who apparently was jealous that her sister Catherine was away from her.
Shields really doesn't give you any insight into Jane Austen. She has a bunch of theories that are based on the books she wrote. For example, she says that Austen must have only loved bookish men because all of Jane Austen's heroes read books. Hell I remember reading Mansfield Park and I don't recall Edmund reading. I do remember how sanctimonious he was to Fanny though.
I really wish that Shields had stuck with a straight autobiography. Instead this whole book read like a very badly put together Buzzfeed article mixed with some references to Wikipedia.
I also really didn't like that the timelines were all over the place. Shields at times expects the reader to already know who people are at times and I got confused when she would retell certain people's biography again and again in the story (e.g. Austen's cousin Eliza is mentioned a lot in this book).
The writing is not much to write home about and I thought the flow was terrible. If the book had told a straightforward tale from Austen's birth to death that would have been something. Instead we jump around way too much.
I really don't know what else to say except that I found this book to be a complete waste of time and I only kept reading because I started to find it hilarious that if Shields saw that the color blue is mentioned in a story that must mean that Austen liked it.
I don't know what to say here besides this entire book read as someone who seemed to think that Jane Austen was not that attractive, was bitter and angry that she was a spinster, and who apparently was jealous that her sister Catherine was away from her.
Shields really doesn't give you any insight into Jane Austen. She has a bunch of theories that are based on the books she wrote. For example, she says that Austen must have only loved bookish men because all of Jane Austen's heroes read books. Hell I remember reading Mansfield Park and I don't recall Edmund reading. I do remember how sanctimonious he was to Fanny though.
I really wish that Shields had stuck with a straight autobiography. Instead this whole book read like a very badly put together Buzzfeed article mixed with some references to Wikipedia.
I also really didn't like that the timelines were all over the place. Shields at times expects the reader to already know who people are at times and I got confused when she would retell certain people's biography again and again in the story (e.g. Austen's cousin Eliza is mentioned a lot in this book).
The writing is not much to write home about and I thought the flow was terrible. If the book had told a straightforward tale from Austen's birth to death that would have been something. Instead we jump around way too much.
I really don't know what else to say except that I found this book to be a complete waste of time and I only kept reading because I started to find it hilarious that if Shields saw that the color blue is mentioned in a story that must mean that Austen liked it.
September 8, 2016
I was drawn to Carol Shields' Jane Austin: A Life because I admire Shields' work as a novelist and because I am in the clutches of a severe attack of Austenitis. It hits me annually, sometimes accompanied by a far less pleasurable bout of gout. Thankfully the gout went away, but the Austen fever lingers. Shields' title is a marvel of simplicity, as is her impressionistic biographical sketch. She confesses that there is scant evidence to draw from so she wisely chooses to focus on an analyses of a few of the novels in the context of major events in her subject's brief life. If you've read other Austen biographies you may want to skip this. But if you are looking for a fluid synopsis of both her life and her work, this is practically perfect. Shields is first and foremost an admiring reader. She credits more extensive biographies as her source material, and highlights crucial snippets from Austen's correspondence, mostly from letters she penned to her elder sister, Cassandra.
According to Shields, their intimacy had its drawbacks. She suggests that the family conspired to keep the spinster aunts apart as much as possible. Cassandra clearly influenced her younger sister in crucial ways, in life and in death. She even destroyed letters she found incriminating after Jane died, possibly from breast cancer, at forty-one. Incriminating to whom we can only guess. Shields pays particular attention to Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. She dislikes Lady Susan but thought the unfinished Sandition had great potential for expanding Austen's subject matter.
I've always thought that Mrs. Bennet gets a bum rap and that Mr. Bennet is viewed more positively than he deserves. So does Shields. She points out that Mrs. Bennet had legitimate concerns about her daughters' prospects and that her husband made things worse by ridiculing her and them. She also stands up for the much maligned Fanny Price. Despite Austen's assertion that no one but she would care for Emma Woodhouse, both Shields and I adore her. What really sold this for me was Shields' belief that Jane Austen,
laboring over her brilliant fictions, creates again and again a vision of refuge furnished with love, acceptance, and security, an image she herself would be able to call a home of her own.
That's an enticing prospect for anyone, even a gouty old guy like me.
According to Shields, their intimacy had its drawbacks. She suggests that the family conspired to keep the spinster aunts apart as much as possible. Cassandra clearly influenced her younger sister in crucial ways, in life and in death. She even destroyed letters she found incriminating after Jane died, possibly from breast cancer, at forty-one. Incriminating to whom we can only guess. Shields pays particular attention to Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. She dislikes Lady Susan but thought the unfinished Sandition had great potential for expanding Austen's subject matter.
I've always thought that Mrs. Bennet gets a bum rap and that Mr. Bennet is viewed more positively than he deserves. So does Shields. She points out that Mrs. Bennet had legitimate concerns about her daughters' prospects and that her husband made things worse by ridiculing her and them. She also stands up for the much maligned Fanny Price. Despite Austen's assertion that no one but she would care for Emma Woodhouse, both Shields and I adore her. What really sold this for me was Shields' belief that Jane Austen,
laboring over her brilliant fictions, creates again and again a vision of refuge furnished with love, acceptance, and security, an image she herself would be able to call a home of her own.
That's an enticing prospect for anyone, even a gouty old guy like me.
July 4, 2022
This short biography of Jane Austen is near perfect if you're looking for an overview of Austen's life along with some astute observations about her novels and some circumspect speculation over what can and cannot be gleaned from Austen's letters and body of writing. Austen, unable to find a suitable marriage, found pleasure and solace in writing and was able to see some of her work published before she died, too young, from a likely cancer. Carol Shields discusses the works themselves and the facts of Austen's life with care and exacting language.
August 24, 2016
The best outcome of my frustrating experience of reading this speculation about the life of Jane Austen is that I learned the difference between "biography" and "literary biography".
In a modern biography, I expect to find at least (i.e. not only) two elements: (a) some sense of the chronological events and experiences which shaped the personality of the subject; and (b) evidence that the biographer has researched primary source materials. This book provides neither.
The chronology of Jane Austen's life is blurred by the author's penchant for meandering backwards and forwards in time (quite admirable, I will grant you, for a novelist) and for embellishing and interweaving Austen's life with events from the lives of her numerous fictional heroines. It felt like a trip on the Starship Enterprise, through black holes and time warps and -- whoops! -- back to England occasionally. I was completely disoriented and distraught.
In her text, Shields neither refers to primary sources (with the exception of several references to the 1870 memoir of Jane Austen's nephew, James-Edward Austen-Leigh) nor provides footnotes. The closest thing to a bibliography is the two-page "A Few Words About Sources" which describes (in prose rather than in scholarly bibliographic form), some 20th-century titles with authors' names, as well as the aforementioned Austen-Leigh memoir and Jane Austen's Letters (edited by Deirdre Le Faye). Such a casual approach to bibliographic information does not even pay lip-service to the serious scholarly work which has been done on the topic of Jane Austen and her writing.
I had muttered and mumbled my way through 22 of the 23 chapters in this confusing book before encountering this enlightening phrase -- . . . the point of literary biography is to throw light on a writer's works . . . . Aha! So this is a literary biography! That does change the playing field.
Literary biography, according to Nicholas Pagan, author of Rethinking Literary Biography: A Postmodern Approach to Tennessee Williams, is "the writing of the lives of men and women who were themselves writers". As a sub-genre which is in its infancy, the style and substance of literary biography seem to be both fluid and forgiving, so it is quite possible that Shields has met or exceeded the requirements of the genre. However, I have no interest in delving into the history of the sub-genre of literary biography. Suffice it to say that I now realize that I was using the wrong measuring tool to assess this particular book. Mea culpa. I have learned something -- and isn't that why I read?
In a modern biography, I expect to find at least (i.e. not only) two elements: (a) some sense of the chronological events and experiences which shaped the personality of the subject; and (b) evidence that the biographer has researched primary source materials. This book provides neither.
The chronology of Jane Austen's life is blurred by the author's penchant for meandering backwards and forwards in time (quite admirable, I will grant you, for a novelist) and for embellishing and interweaving Austen's life with events from the lives of her numerous fictional heroines. It felt like a trip on the Starship Enterprise, through black holes and time warps and -- whoops! -- back to England occasionally. I was completely disoriented and distraught.
In her text, Shields neither refers to primary sources (with the exception of several references to the 1870 memoir of Jane Austen's nephew, James-Edward Austen-Leigh) nor provides footnotes. The closest thing to a bibliography is the two-page "A Few Words About Sources" which describes (in prose rather than in scholarly bibliographic form), some 20th-century titles with authors' names, as well as the aforementioned Austen-Leigh memoir and Jane Austen's Letters (edited by Deirdre Le Faye). Such a casual approach to bibliographic information does not even pay lip-service to the serious scholarly work which has been done on the topic of Jane Austen and her writing.
I had muttered and mumbled my way through 22 of the 23 chapters in this confusing book before encountering this enlightening phrase -- . . . the point of literary biography is to throw light on a writer's works . . . . Aha! So this is a literary biography! That does change the playing field.
Literary biography, according to Nicholas Pagan, author of Rethinking Literary Biography: A Postmodern Approach to Tennessee Williams, is "the writing of the lives of men and women who were themselves writers". As a sub-genre which is in its infancy, the style and substance of literary biography seem to be both fluid and forgiving, so it is quite possible that Shields has met or exceeded the requirements of the genre. However, I have no interest in delving into the history of the sub-genre of literary biography. Suffice it to say that I now realize that I was using the wrong measuring tool to assess this particular book. Mea culpa. I have learned something -- and isn't that why I read?
January 30, 2015
I so wish GR had half stars!
This wasn't quite a 4 star read for me, but was too good to put down as a mere 3!
Shields has a very easy to read writing style. Due to the paucity of information about Jane Austen's life, a lot of the writing is speculative, but Shields gave good reasons for her theories (such as why Austen appeared to have stopped writing whilst living in Bath) & I found myself agreeing with a lot of Shields ideas.
This wasn't quite a 4 star read for me, but was too good to put down as a mere 3!
Shields has a very easy to read writing style. Due to the paucity of information about Jane Austen's life, a lot of the writing is speculative, but Shields gave good reasons for her theories (such as why Austen appeared to have stopped writing whilst living in Bath) & I found myself agreeing with a lot of Shields ideas.
standby
April 2, 2016Vou pausar Jane Austen- a Life e HP e a Ordem da Fénix porque vou participar em duas leituras conjuntas nos próximos dias
January 7, 2009
It doesn't happen to me very often, but I had to look up a word in this book! In the beginning of Chapter 8, the author uses "palimpsest". Please tell me I'm not the only one going for the Webster's right now :)
Palimpsest: (lit., rubbed again) a parchment that has been written upon previously and that bears traces of the imperfectly erased texts.
Here's how it was used: "Pride and Prejudice can be seen as a palimpsest, with Jane Austen's real life engraved, roughly, enigmatically, beneath its surface."
I have been a fan of Jane since I first got P&P sometime between the 3rd and 6th grades. Of course, at the time I had no idea it was "classic literature" -- I just loved it! And have loved it over and over again for many years.
I liked this book -- I even found the Prologue entertaining ". . .the Jane Austen Society of North America, an organization that comprises some of the world's most respected Austen scholars, as well as rank amateurs, like ourselves. . . . There is only minimal incense burning at these meetings, and no attempt to trivialize Jane Austen's pronouncements and mockingly bring her into our contemporary midst. . . (Wherever three or four come together in Jane Austen's name, there is bound to be a trivia quiz.. .)"
I love it that scholars and fans ". . .can't even agree on what to call her. . . . 'Jane' itself feels too familiar an address to apply to the adult writer . . .Ms Austen is unthinkable. Miss Austen? No! (Cassandra, as the older sister, claims that title.) Austen on its own possesses an indelicacy; we know, somehow, that she would have been offended."
One of the reasons I know why we like Jane so much -- "And, at the same time, she was reading. Everything we know about the family tells us that her reading was likely to have been unsupervised and random. Her father's bookshelves would have been open to her, and probably this good-hearted, busy man did not trouble to direct her choices. There existed very little that might be called children's writing, and so she plunged directly into the adult world of letters." This, about someone whose formal education stopped at the age of 11!
For some reason, this description of her family delights me -- perhaps because my family is so sarcastic and witty? "We can only guess that parody was the family flavour, and that the Austens were proud citizens of a satirical age."
I couldn't help but chuckle at this part: "There is a joke among novelists that in order to initiate strong action or to revive a wilting narrative it is only necessary to say: 'And so a stranger came to town.'"
I found this book so interesting, and of course it made me want to read Sense & Sensibility (why have I never?) and find other Jane writing. Although the inscription on her tomb doesn't mention her books, we know and love them, and that's what has lasted. The tribute on her tomb is indeed beautiful: "The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her, and the warmest love of her intimate connections."
Palimpsest: (lit., rubbed again) a parchment that has been written upon previously and that bears traces of the imperfectly erased texts.
Here's how it was used: "Pride and Prejudice can be seen as a palimpsest, with Jane Austen's real life engraved, roughly, enigmatically, beneath its surface."
I have been a fan of Jane since I first got P&P sometime between the 3rd and 6th grades. Of course, at the time I had no idea it was "classic literature" -- I just loved it! And have loved it over and over again for many years.
I liked this book -- I even found the Prologue entertaining ". . .the Jane Austen Society of North America, an organization that comprises some of the world's most respected Austen scholars, as well as rank amateurs, like ourselves. . . . There is only minimal incense burning at these meetings, and no attempt to trivialize Jane Austen's pronouncements and mockingly bring her into our contemporary midst. . . (Wherever three or four come together in Jane Austen's name, there is bound to be a trivia quiz.. .)"
I love it that scholars and fans ". . .can't even agree on what to call her. . . . 'Jane' itself feels too familiar an address to apply to the adult writer . . .Ms Austen is unthinkable. Miss Austen? No! (Cassandra, as the older sister, claims that title.) Austen on its own possesses an indelicacy; we know, somehow, that she would have been offended."
One of the reasons I know why we like Jane so much -- "And, at the same time, she was reading. Everything we know about the family tells us that her reading was likely to have been unsupervised and random. Her father's bookshelves would have been open to her, and probably this good-hearted, busy man did not trouble to direct her choices. There existed very little that might be called children's writing, and so she plunged directly into the adult world of letters." This, about someone whose formal education stopped at the age of 11!
For some reason, this description of her family delights me -- perhaps because my family is so sarcastic and witty? "We can only guess that parody was the family flavour, and that the Austens were proud citizens of a satirical age."
I couldn't help but chuckle at this part: "There is a joke among novelists that in order to initiate strong action or to revive a wilting narrative it is only necessary to say: 'And so a stranger came to town.'"
I found this book so interesting, and of course it made me want to read Sense & Sensibility (why have I never?) and find other Jane writing. Although the inscription on her tomb doesn't mention her books, we know and love them, and that's what has lasted. The tribute on her tomb is indeed beautiful: "The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her, and the warmest love of her intimate connections."
June 17, 2023
Had to put this one down until I finished reading Emma — and then the biography did not seem that interesting. Probably a good overview for someone who wants an introduction to the life and work of Jane Austen.
The quality of this work was at times uneven. For example, during a discussion of Bath as a resort destination, references to modern figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Elizabeth Taylor were jarring (and completely irrelevant). Sometimes biographers are too desperate to insert something contemporary.
The quality of this work was at times uneven. For example, during a discussion of Bath as a resort destination, references to modern figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Elizabeth Taylor were jarring (and completely irrelevant). Sometimes biographers are too desperate to insert something contemporary.
November 25, 2020
This is a good and relatively short standard biography of Austen; I considered giving it four stars but its probably esoteric in a way that will keep it from being widely appreciated. Still, its an obviously good biography and is also a literary biography of a writer as well as one of a Georgian British woman.
July 8, 2022
I found this book at a Church yard sale and of course, I had to buy it. It’s only 1 euro and you can never know too much about Jane Austen!
This biography of Jane Austen is a rather slim volume that tells her story by focusing on her relationships and how that might have impacted her writing. This means that the book moves between talking about Jane Austen’s novels and about Jane Austen’s life. It makes the chronological order of things feel a bit choppy, but it was an interesting way of looking at things.
Given that Cassandra Austen, Jane Austen’s sister, destroyed a lot of Jane Austen’s letters that she didn’t think were flattering, there’s bound to be a lot of conjecture here. While some of the letters are quoted, most are not and we left viewing them the way the author viewed them. For example:
The letters in question aren’t quoted, so the reader has to believe the author when she tells us that the tone is “feverishly false.” I was also not sure of how far we can trust the tone of the letters as an accurate judge of Jane Austen’s mind because Shields also says in the start of the book that Jane Austen utilised a letter-writing technique that was “being encouraged in her time, and so the scattered and somewhat breathless nature of her correspondence is the result not of carelessness but of deliberation.” If the letters were deliberately written in a style, was the tone also deliberate and could it be hiding something?
Despite not knowing how much of the interpretation of Jane Austen’s letters can be trusted, I had a fun time reading this book. It’s always interesting to make connections between Jane Austen’s novels and her life, and this book was short enough to finish in a day, making it a quick, fun read for me.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads
This biography of Jane Austen is a rather slim volume that tells her story by focusing on her relationships and how that might have impacted her writing. This means that the book moves between talking about Jane Austen’s novels and about Jane Austen’s life. It makes the chronological order of things feel a bit choppy, but it was an interesting way of looking at things.
Given that Cassandra Austen, Jane Austen’s sister, destroyed a lot of Jane Austen’s letters that she didn’t think were flattering, there’s bound to be a lot of conjecture here. While some of the letters are quoted, most are not and we left viewing them the way the author viewed them. For example:
“Jane Austen’s tone in her letters to Cassandra is merry and expectant and feverishly false. There is too much heartiness and there are too many intervening letters after the first announcement that appear to have been destroyed by Cassandra.”
The letters in question aren’t quoted, so the reader has to believe the author when she tells us that the tone is “feverishly false.” I was also not sure of how far we can trust the tone of the letters as an accurate judge of Jane Austen’s mind because Shields also says in the start of the book that Jane Austen utilised a letter-writing technique that was “being encouraged in her time, and so the scattered and somewhat breathless nature of her correspondence is the result not of carelessness but of deliberation.” If the letters were deliberately written in a style, was the tone also deliberate and could it be hiding something?
Despite not knowing how much of the interpretation of Jane Austen’s letters can be trusted, I had a fun time reading this book. It’s always interesting to make connections between Jane Austen’s novels and her life, and this book was short enough to finish in a day, making it a quick, fun read for me.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads
October 14, 2024
This was a good segue into reading pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility. I plan to read all of her fully finished books and form my opinions on them. It would be cool to come back and read this after I have read those books too, see if I agree what the author says about Jane Austen’s writing in them.
January 6, 2025
Tot mijn schande moet ik toegeven dat ik nooit iets las van Jane Austen. Wel romans van Carol Shields, en daar genoot ik erg van. Ik dacht dan ook dat ik een roman van Shields over Austen te pakken had. Maar het bleek een non-fictie-werk te zijn, over het leven en werk van Austen. Na deze fijne kennismaking ga ik snel een roman van Jane Austen lezen. Welke raden jullie me aan?
August 5, 2012
[This review was originally posted on my blog.]
In this concise biography, Pulitzer Prize winner Carol Shields describes the circumstances that influenced Jane Austen's writing. Shields does not waste time exploring Austen's day-to-day life nor her detailed habits, but succinctly depicts an image of a developing writer and the environment that nurtured her authoring skills. She often refers to James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir of Jane Austen and Jane's letters. For those who are interested, she lists a few important biographies and academic studies at the end of the book.
Jane Austen grew up in a large clerical family with a small boarding school attached to her father's parsonage. A lot of merry distractions were to be had from family theatricals and the hustle and bustle from associating with neighbours. Reverend George Austen - himself a learned man - encouraged (or did not discourage) his daughter's literary pursuit: she was allowed access to his 500-book collection. At home, with six brothers and her sister Casssandra keeping her company, Jane Austen felt most comfortable and happy.
She started writing small stories when she was very young and they were most likely read aloud to or read by her family. Many of these were later elaborated upon and worked into one of her six finished novels. According to Shields, Jane Austen's writing skills were entirely honed at home, having only her family members to reflect on and criticise her work. There were no opportunities for her to discuss the art of writing with fellow authors.
Jane Austen: A Life draws an image of a young woman sentenced to spinsterhood, without a home of her own. Where the young Jane Austen was a happy and carefree creature, the adult version realised that without a decent dowry she would remain dependent on the goodwill of her relatives. Perhaps only through her heroines could she achieve a kind of independence. Jane Austen's class demanded that she were to be chaperoned at all times. This lack of privacy may have deepened her understanding of the small details that propel domestic and village life. Her happiness was found in her many nephews and nieces, the correspondence with Cassandra from whom she was not often apart, and of course her writing. Jane Austen was known to write and rewrite until she deemed her fiction satisfactory. The routines of Jane Austen were largely undisturbed until her ageing parents decided to move out of beloved Steventon and into rented rooms in Bath. A reason for this was their declining financial situation. Shields hints at the ulterior motive of finding suitable husbands for the two single women, but in reality Bath was several decades past its heyday and no longer the place for husband-hunting. She describes how Jane Austen was shocked into silence by their sudden removal from the only home she knew and would only pick up her pen almost ten years later. The years in Bath were not without merit, however, as Shields believes Jane Austen put her observing powers to use, soaking up everything that went on in society, to be spun into her later writing.
In the last chapter of the book, the author discusses the fact that Austen never goes into the details of the physical; she talks about "regular features", "a fair complexion" and women having "not unpretty faces". Yet, as a reader, I did not notice this particular fact until Carol Shields mentioned it. I have not encountered any problems envisaging any of Austen's characters and have even felt them to be full of detail and depth. Such is her power of evocative writing that I never thought of her characters as solely - in Shields' words - "talking heads".
The author of Jane Austen: A Life is evidently an admirer of her work and well-informed. If you are looking for a short biography that is entertaining and never superficial, this will be worth your while.
In this concise biography, Pulitzer Prize winner Carol Shields describes the circumstances that influenced Jane Austen's writing. Shields does not waste time exploring Austen's day-to-day life nor her detailed habits, but succinctly depicts an image of a developing writer and the environment that nurtured her authoring skills. She often refers to James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir of Jane Austen and Jane's letters. For those who are interested, she lists a few important biographies and academic studies at the end of the book.
Jane Austen grew up in a large clerical family with a small boarding school attached to her father's parsonage. A lot of merry distractions were to be had from family theatricals and the hustle and bustle from associating with neighbours. Reverend George Austen - himself a learned man - encouraged (or did not discourage) his daughter's literary pursuit: she was allowed access to his 500-book collection. At home, with six brothers and her sister Casssandra keeping her company, Jane Austen felt most comfortable and happy.
She started writing small stories when she was very young and they were most likely read aloud to or read by her family. Many of these were later elaborated upon and worked into one of her six finished novels. According to Shields, Jane Austen's writing skills were entirely honed at home, having only her family members to reflect on and criticise her work. There were no opportunities for her to discuss the art of writing with fellow authors.
Jane Austen: A Life draws an image of a young woman sentenced to spinsterhood, without a home of her own. Where the young Jane Austen was a happy and carefree creature, the adult version realised that without a decent dowry she would remain dependent on the goodwill of her relatives. Perhaps only through her heroines could she achieve a kind of independence. Jane Austen's class demanded that she were to be chaperoned at all times. This lack of privacy may have deepened her understanding of the small details that propel domestic and village life. Her happiness was found in her many nephews and nieces, the correspondence with Cassandra from whom she was not often apart, and of course her writing. Jane Austen was known to write and rewrite until she deemed her fiction satisfactory. The routines of Jane Austen were largely undisturbed until her ageing parents decided to move out of beloved Steventon and into rented rooms in Bath. A reason for this was their declining financial situation. Shields hints at the ulterior motive of finding suitable husbands for the two single women, but in reality Bath was several decades past its heyday and no longer the place for husband-hunting. She describes how Jane Austen was shocked into silence by their sudden removal from the only home she knew and would only pick up her pen almost ten years later. The years in Bath were not without merit, however, as Shields believes Jane Austen put her observing powers to use, soaking up everything that went on in society, to be spun into her later writing.
In the last chapter of the book, the author discusses the fact that Austen never goes into the details of the physical; she talks about "regular features", "a fair complexion" and women having "not unpretty faces". Yet, as a reader, I did not notice this particular fact until Carol Shields mentioned it. I have not encountered any problems envisaging any of Austen's characters and have even felt them to be full of detail and depth. Such is her power of evocative writing that I never thought of her characters as solely - in Shields' words - "talking heads".
The author of Jane Austen: A Life is evidently an admirer of her work and well-informed. If you are looking for a short biography that is entertaining and never superficial, this will be worth your while.
April 5, 2013
I've read all of Jane Austen's books (including the more obscure ones), I've read her letters (Shields may say over and over and over again that there are some that are destroyed - but let that not give you the impression there aren't many left, because there are), I've read several biographies. And I read this book and wondered if this book is about the same woman.
Be that as it may - how we perceive a person, long gone, is always a matter of personal opinions. I do, however, have some issues with the book as a biography:
First of all, Shield does not seem to take into account what was normal in Georgian England and from time to time she falls into the trap of assuming that what would be rational to a modern person would be rational for Austen and her family.
Secondly, you can't use novels as biographical material. Sometimes Shields acknowledges this, but then she does just that. Over and over again.
Thirdly, the novels are used to draw conclusions both Austen's life and her writing techniques - when the books were first written, though three of them were published much later and we know that they were edited. None of the original first drafts survive, we just don't know what they looked like. We can't say anything about what a witty heroine Austen created in Elizabeth Bennet back in 1796, because we don't know anything about that. All we know is what a witty heroine she published in 1813.
And I must add that the last chapter is just... weird.
Be that as it may - how we perceive a person, long gone, is always a matter of personal opinions. I do, however, have some issues with the book as a biography:
First of all, Shield does not seem to take into account what was normal in Georgian England and from time to time she falls into the trap of assuming that what would be rational to a modern person would be rational for Austen and her family.
Secondly, you can't use novels as biographical material. Sometimes Shields acknowledges this, but then she does just that. Over and over again.
Thirdly, the novels are used to draw conclusions both Austen's life and her writing techniques - when the books were first written, though three of them were published much later and we know that they were edited. None of the original first drafts survive, we just don't know what they looked like. We can't say anything about what a witty heroine Austen created in Elizabeth Bennet back in 1796, because we don't know anything about that. All we know is what a witty heroine she published in 1813.
And I must add that the last chapter is just... weird.
September 25, 2014
It feels like Jane Austen has always been a part of my life, so much so, that I never thought about reading a biography about her...I didn't need to, she was already a part of my family...an older sister that gave me advice on love and being a strong woman....never mind that we are two centuries apart....and an ocean. I run to her books when I need to feel safe....and curling up in pjs and watching the BBC versions of her books...a cheap vacation.
This year while abroad, it struck me that I could actually read about her life....though little is really known, so as I am a bit homesick, I thought I would return home to something familiar with this book. The book is well written and easy to read...nothing earth shattering, facts that are known by any Jane fan....but more details and reminders of the books...and how her life may have influenced it all. It was a nice reminder..and a comfort, and sadly the first time I read that she had probably died of breast cancer.
Read if you are a fan of Jane Austen. It will make you feel like you are home.
This year while abroad, it struck me that I could actually read about her life....though little is really known, so as I am a bit homesick, I thought I would return home to something familiar with this book. The book is well written and easy to read...nothing earth shattering, facts that are known by any Jane fan....but more details and reminders of the books...and how her life may have influenced it all. It was a nice reminder..and a comfort, and sadly the first time I read that she had probably died of breast cancer.
Read if you are a fan of Jane Austen. It will make you feel like you are home.
September 17, 2020
Though short (185 pages) and densely packed with information about Austen's life and that of her books, this biography reads like a novel. Shields' insight, as a fellow writer, into Austen's possible creative process and inspiration are particularly interesting. If you've never read an Austen biography (but would like to), I would highly recommend this one.
March 8, 2013
A well written introduction to the life of Jane Austen.
January 6, 2024
1st read May 2010?
Reread 8/3/2015
Reread 1/5/2024
Reread 8/3/2015
Reread 1/5/2024
May 27, 2019
Canadian writer Carol Shields's strength as a novelist shines through this concise biography.
September 1, 2017
I'm reading this bio for a Jane Austen class I'm taking in university, I haven't read any of Jane Austen's novels YET. But after reading this short bio, I'm looking forward to getting into Pride and Prejudice and Emma.
So onto the biography, very quickly I realized that this biography is mostly based on speculation and inference. I'm not sure if most biographies are this way (because I rarely read any), but it was kind of irritating to constantly see words like "possibly", "supposedly", and "based on". About 80% of the book is surrounded around the makings of the novels, the journey to publication, and guessing Jane Austen's personality based on (that phrase again) on the characters she has created.
Shields had a weird fixation on the account that Jane Austen was never married (there also this whole chapter at the end questioning whether or not she was a virgin, which is weird). Jane Austen's spinisterhood was such a main theme in this bio, that I wonder if Jane Austen had this big of a problem with not being married as Shields is making it out to be.
I also got the sense that although Shields believes Jane Austen is a brilliant writer, she didn't think too much about the author as a person. She repeatedly refers to Jane Austen letting her sister lead her life, possibly not being attractive, self depreciating, bitter, and insulting.
This bio did cause me to be that more excited to dive into Jane Austen novels, Shields did a great job of summing up each novel and explaining the circumstances and characters.
So onto the biography, very quickly I realized that this biography is mostly based on speculation and inference. I'm not sure if most biographies are this way (because I rarely read any), but it was kind of irritating to constantly see words like "possibly", "supposedly", and "based on". About 80% of the book is surrounded around the makings of the novels, the journey to publication, and guessing Jane Austen's personality based on (that phrase again) on the characters she has created.
Shields had a weird fixation on the account that Jane Austen was never married (there also this whole chapter at the end questioning whether or not she was a virgin, which is weird). Jane Austen's spinisterhood was such a main theme in this bio, that I wonder if Jane Austen had this big of a problem with not being married as Shields is making it out to be.
I also got the sense that although Shields believes Jane Austen is a brilliant writer, she didn't think too much about the author as a person. She repeatedly refers to Jane Austen letting her sister lead her life, possibly not being attractive, self depreciating, bitter, and insulting.
This bio did cause me to be that more excited to dive into Jane Austen novels, Shields did a great job of summing up each novel and explaining the circumstances and characters.
April 7, 2017
A sympathetic biography by one author on another. The facts of Jane Austen's life can be picked up in any number of other biographies, but the strength of this short book is in Carol Shields' appraisal of Austen's influences and writing processes. Her research is tempered with empathy for her subject, making for an absorbing read.
November 26, 2023
The author's self-indulgent tone was wearing, she glossed over major life events, and several facts or interpretations didn't jive with the other, more complete biography that I read. I'll read a tie-breaker. 😏
Displaying 1 - 30 of 284 reviews