Reviews for Jane Austen :Obstinate Heart A Biography

The average rating for Jane Austen :Obstinate Heart A Biography based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-10-06 00:00:00 Tena Cowher Myer tells Jane Austen's story principally through her own words and the words of her family and friends. This can get a little tedious but it's still all Jane all the time and worth it for little gems like this from her letters Lady Elizabeth Hatton and Annamaria called here this morning; yes, they called, but I do not think I can say any more about them. They came and they sat and they went. and this from the author on Jane's refusal of a proposal On 2 December [1802] came Harris Bigg-Wither's proposal to Jane. Seen in the context of her age, her dissatisfaction with life in Bath or trailing round with her parents, and her pinched life of poverty, her refusal of this opportunity is dazzling its integrity...We may think the decision was correct, and also, given the background, heroic. Not to mention which her name would then have been Jane Bigg-Wither, which I personally am grateful we were spared on the title page of her novels. There are interesting tidbits on the genesis of some her most well-known characters like this one The fierce Dowager Lady Stanhope, wife of the second earl and mother of the third, was...the mother of Lady Hester Stanhope, the noted traveller and eccentric. Hester was the same age as Jane and a distant relative on her mother's side. Old Lady Stanhope, whose Christian name was Grizel, was in her seventies, and domineering. Her bossiness provided the model for Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and her mother-in-law's name was, interestingly, Catherine Burghill. and this on Jane's intellectual curiosity ...Jane was reading An Essay on the Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire by Captain Sir Charles William Pasley of the royal Engineers, which she found highly entertaining and delightfully written. She declared herself in love with the author, as much so as with Thomas Clarkson, author of History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade (1808), and Claudius Buchanan, author of Christian Researches in Asia (1811). Yet some people are convinced that Jane Austen's interests were purely trivial. Myer concludes on this infuriating paragraph In 1818 the Cambridge University Library, although a copyright library entitled to claim everything publishing in Britain, rejected as unimportant works by Ludwig van Beethoven and by Jane Austen. Between 1817 and 1870 there was only one complete edition of Jane's works. Since then, there have been countless editions, film and television versions, and endless commentaries and critiques. Since her death, Jane's work has made millions for other people. As early as 1930 one of her letters fetched £1,000 and by the mid-1980s a collector paid £900 fr a mere scrap of her handwriting...In her lifetime the produce of her hand and brain was poorly and grudgingly rewarded. A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. Jane had neither and wrote six novels anyway, and for that we shall always be grateful.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-08-17 00:00:00 Navjot Dhiman Jane Austin is by far my favorite author, which is surprising since she isn't my typical genre of book. It still can remember my emotions the first time I read Pride and Prejudice. I was completely captured. Her humor and wit inspire me. So when I came across this biography, I was excited to learn all about this fantastic woman. This book is about as complete of a biography as one can write about Jane Austin. She was born on December 16, 1775, lived in England her whole life and never travel from it, then died at 41 years old on  July 18, 1817. She never married and lived a typical experience for a woman of her time. What the book covers is mostly her family life. She had Five active brothers, one brother with a severe disability, and an older sister who also never married.  The most interesting part of this book was the last few chapters when Jane Austen decides to try and publish her books anonymously. She is a poor woman in her late thirties and is thrilled by the small amount of money she is able to earn. She only publishes four of her books in her lifetime and earns a grand total of £600. It is ironic how many millions others have made off of her hard work, but at least she was somewhat famous in her last years. Overall, this book, though, was hard to read. The first two chapter should just be deleted completely. Chapter one focuses on dirtying Jane Austin's reputation and picturing her as a bitter, disillusioned woman. I find that hard to believe even with the evidence presented. Throughout the rest of the book, acquaintances seek out her company and children love her. This doesn't happen to bitter people. Also, what a person writes in private letters and how they act publicly are two different things. Jane Austen's biting humor to her sister doesn't seem to be how everyone else remembers her, but the author of this biography is convinced that everyone was just white-washing Jane Austen's memory. I also know that Jane Austin's novel feels optimistic. If she was bitter, it should have filtered through her writing. I have a big problem with this image of Jane Austen. The second chapter is just a dizzying list of names and relationships in a random order. The summary of Jane Austen's entire genealogy can be placed in the appendix. The stories in this chapter are then repeated in the rest of the book. From here, the book forces itself slowly into chronological order, but the writer suffers from lack of organization. Once you push through this slow beginning, things do pick up, but the strongest part of the book is the last few chapters.  I do recommend this book for hard Jane Austin fans, but the casual reader may find it slow. Either way, I am glad I read it and learned a lot about Jane Austen. It also encouraged me to keep writing!