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Summary
Summary
Jane Austen's popularity never seems to fade. She has hordes of devoted fans, and there have been numerous adaptations of her life and work. But who was Jane Austen? The writer herself has long remained a mystery. And despite the resonance her work continues to have for teens, there has never been a young adult trade biography on Austen.
Catherine Reef changes that with this highly readable account. She takes an intimate peek at Austen's life and innermost feelings, interweaving her narrative with well-crafted digests of each of Austen's published novels. The end result is a book that is almost as much fun to read as Jane's own work--and truly a life revealed. Includes bibliography and index.
Author Notes
Catherine Reef received a degree in English from Washington State University. She began her career as a writer at Washington State, where she created brochures for the College of Pharmacy and developed the university's first research magazine. She is the author of more than 35 nonfiction books for young people. She has received several awards including the Joan G. Sugarman Children's Book Award for Walt Whitman in 1996, the Sydney Taylor Award for Sigmund Freud: Pioneer of the Mind in 2002, and a Golden Kite Honor Award for Ernest Hemingway: A Writer's Life in 2010.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Reef beefs up what little is known about Austen's life by blending in social history and substantial descriptions of her novels. While the author's writing style is clear and unaffected, the book lacks organization. The text jumps from topic to topic, sometimes within the same paragraph, all without the benefit of headings and subheadings. For example, Jane and Cassandra's friendship with Martha and Mary Lloyd, Mary's attack of smallpox, smallpox statistics in general, symptoms, the side effects that Mary experienced, and the Lloyds' relationship to the Fowles family are covered in that order in three paragraphs. Reef includes extensive source notes and a selected bibliography. Still, there is at least one major factual error. Early in the book, Reef writes, "No one knows Jane Austen's views on religion.." In truth, there are dozens of references to Austen's strong Christian beliefs in letters she wrote and in things that other people wrote about her. Also, she wrote at least three long, characteristically eloquent prayers. Flashes of bias show up, too. When Reef describes a time when Austen learned the news that she had to move from her home, she writes, "Anyone would assume that Jane wrote to Cassandra right away.." Later, Reef refers to Austen's assessment of a sick niece as "cold-hearted." Occasional black-and-white illustrations are lackluster. Consider Juliane Locke's England's Jane: The Story of Jane Austen (Morgan Reynolds, 2005) instead.-Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Library, NC (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
"Millions of people throughout the world read and enjoy Austen's books; she and her novels are the subjects of countless films and adaptations; but very little is known about the woman herself." How then does Reef go about writing a biography of Jane Austen, who kept no diary, whose thousands of letters were largely destroyed, who never married or had children, who died relatively young of a mysterious illness, and of whom there is in existence only one known portrait? Reef's approach combines firsthand accounts of Austen written by relatives and friends, historical information about Britain in the late 1700s, the basic facts of Austen's life that are readily known, and Austen's own novels and surviving letters, presented in a chronological format. Since Austen mainly based her novels on the life she knew, Reef's account also focuses on Austen's large family and many friends, highlighting the connections between Austen's novels and her life. At times the chronology is confusing and information feels haphazardly placed in Reef's attempts to provide further insights into the life and times of Jane Austen. But for devout Janeites it's fascinating to see all this information combined, and for others it's a worthwhile introduction to a masterful writer's life. A family tree, notes, a selected bibliography, a list of Austen's works, and an index are appended. cynthia k. ritter (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
now, thanks to films, adaptations and television specials, "[b]ut very little is known about the woman herself." Of the thousands of letters she wrote, only 139 survive, the rest destroyed for reasons unknown. She was a writer but left no diaries. What is a biographer to do to fill in the many, many lacunae? Provide whatever information is available about cousins, uncles, aunts, brothers, father, mother, nephewsall of which can become confusing without a Venn diagram. Then...give plot summations of Austen's novels. Those who have read the books or seen the filmsthe book's likely audiencemay not need these book reports, which take up a sizable portion of the biography. Reef's histories of Austen's travels and her observations of Georgian society and its movements nicely delineate the settings and people her subject used as material, and Austen's sometimes acerbic comments about her characters help enliven the explications of the novels. Illustrations are mostly from movies and early-20th-century editions as well as portraits. Perhaps this work will lead readers to Jane Austen and imaginatively apply the facts of the author's life to the novelsor vice-versa. (afterword, family trees, notes, selected bibliography, index) (Biography. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Veteran nonfiction writer Reef, whose E. E. Cummings: A Poet's Life (2006) and Ernest Hemingway: A Writer's Life (2009) both received starred reviews in Booklist, contributes another encompassing, neatly synthesized introduction to a famous writer. Jane Austen is a particularly challenging subject, since many of her letters were burned after her death, and she left behind no diaries. It's even unclear what she looked like; no portraits exist, except a poor likeness painted by her sister. Pulling from wide-ranging research, Reef gamely mines the available resources and pieces together contradictory views of the writer, from a sweet, forgiving creature to a wickedly funny, unsparing observer of human behavior: For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn. Along with extensive details of Austen's family, with whom the unmarried author lived her entire life, Reef deftly sets the biographical facts onto a larger cultural and historical canvas that will give readers a much deeper understanding of Austen's novels, and well-chosen images, from period paintings and photos to contemporary film stills, add even more context. Closing with a long bibliography and source notes for direct quotes, this is an obvious choice for student research, but Austen's enduring popularity and the never-ending stream of fiction inspired by her work from pink-covered chick lit to zombie-filled horror will draw pleasure readers, too.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2010 Booklist
Table of Contents
| Family Tree | p. viii |
| 1 Gentle Aunt Jane? | p. 1 |
| 2 The Novelist Is Born | p. 11 |
| 3 Love and Losses | p. 33 |
| 4 Uprooted | p. 50 |
| 5 An Extraordinary Fate | p. 69 |
| 6 Light, Bright, and Sparkling | p. 87 |
| 7 Vice and Virtue | p. 103 |
| 8 ôIf I Live to Be an Old Woman ...ö | p. 118 |
| 9 Lasting Words | p. 136 |
| Afterword: Our Own Jane Austen | p. 151 |
| Notes | p. 157 |
| Selected Bibliography | p. 173 |
| Jane Austen's Works | p. 179 |
| Picture Credits | p. 181 |
| Index | p. 183 |
