About the Author:
Audrey Hawkridge's long association with the Jane Austen Memorial Trust and work at Jane Austen's House at Chawton, Hampshire, has given her an in-depth knowledge of the writer and her work.
From Booklist:
Readers curious about the biographical influences on Austen's novels will delight in this thoughtful study of the men who came into contact with Austen as well as those she created. Hawkridge's book begins with a portrait of Austen that might surprise readers: a flirty, wisecracking young lady whom one of her contemporaries referred to as "the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly." Austen's intelligence and wit show through in her letters to her sister, Cassandra, in which she comments upon the society in which she moved. Hawkridge goes on to discuss Austen's large family in great detail; in addition to her sister, Austen had six brothers--two were naval officers, two others clerics, one a landed gentleman, and the last suffered from severe epilepsy. Jane's romantic interludes are detailed here as well, from the men she fancied to those she did not. Interspersed with these chapters are ones that analyze her novels and speculate on the possible influences the real-life men had on the fictional ones. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.