- Image via Wikipedia
It feels like a terrible admission, but I don’t actually like Jane Austen that much. I acknowledge her significant contribution to the transition from the gothic to the domestic, but I still can’t get terribly excited by her novels. However, I decided it was high time I learned more about the woman herself, and thought this might lead to a greater appreciation of her work.
Unfortunately, very little is known about her life, so any biographer is faced with a dearth of material and a wealth of assumptions. Claire Tomalin is a meticulous researcher and an engaging writer. As in all her other brilliant biographies, the characters leap off the page and the reader is instantly captivated. Jane Austen: A Life is no exception, but there is scant information on Jane herself. Tomalin opens by challenging the notion that Austen led an uneventful life and promises to prove otherwise. The biography is certainly packed with incident, but it mostly relates to Austen’s friends and family – she was merely an observer. Of course, she was an extraordinary observer, but it’s not the same as having lived it, and this book could be more accurately entitled Jane Austen’s Circle.
However, there are moments of true illumination. For example, Austen’s experience of being sent away to school is poignantly told, and we are introduced to the memorable headmistress Madame La Tournelle (real name: Sarah Hackitt), who sported a cork leg and spoke no French. There are also valuable insights into Austen’s attitudes to the work of Mary Wollstencraft. Having already written a masterly biography of the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Tomalin is ideally-placed to examine Austen’s work in this context. Any self-respecting feminist republican can’t help but be roused by the remark she made about Caroline of Brunswick: “Poor Woman, I shall support her as long as I can, because she is a Woman, & because I hate her Husband.” If only Austen’s family hadn’t destroyed all her letters, we would doubtless have many more examples.
Jane Austen enthusiastics would doubtless get much more out of this biography. In my defence, it has prompted me to go back and re-read the novels, which is what any good literary life should do.
Related posts:
