Musings from a blogger:
I meant to write a review of The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne in February shortly after the book came out, but life intervened – life in the form of visitors, a busy schedule at work and move to new offices, a bum knee that required an operation and recuperation, and the book itself, which – several pages into it – urged me to read it to the last before recommending it (or not) to others. I carried the book every day to work hoping to complete it during lunch, but my best laid plans were inevitably derailed.
In addition to this blog and my interest in Jane Austen and the world she lived in, I have been reading other authors: Virginia Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Georgette Heyer, to name a few. David Stockman’s The Great Deformation, a great big bear of a book that holds economic insights that will chill the confidence of avid savers like myself, is my most recent acquisition. And then there’s Netflix. I admit to being a serial viewer of series that I missed seeing: The West Wing, for example, The Walking Dead, and now 30 Rock. Warmer weather now pulls me to spring gardening and walking in the great outdoors.
The real life of Vic Sanborn has been getting in the way of her quest to know more about the real Jane Austen, which is why this blog’s entries have been so spare of late and why I took so long to finish Paula Byrne’s book. Not that I didn’t enjoy it. This image of my copy of The Real Jane Austen will tell you all.
My well thumbed copy of The Real Jane Austen
One would think that as a devoted Janeite who has read almost all the major biographies and articles about Jane, plus her books and letters and a great number of sequels about her novels and life, that I would have my fill of reading about Miss Austen. But I haven’t.
One acquaintance asked me how I could continue reading books that, on the surface, seemed all so similar. It’s simple, really. I rarely tire of talking about Jane and her works. I love the conversations in our book group. I enjoy attending conferences and meetings about her, listening to Janeite scholars and reading the insights of other bloggers who bring their own unique perspectives to her life and work. No matter how much I learn, I am still eager to know more. Just a slightly different take on her life and novels will provide me with new insights that spur me to uncovering more information. Full-fledged Janeite that I am, I can now publicly confess: I am dotty about Jane Austen and crazy about the Regency era.
My review of The Real Jane Austen
I frankly did not think I would like this book, my preconception coming from the blitz of publicity last year about the lost image of Jane Austen that Paula Byrne discovered. (I much prefer Cassandra’s tiny amateurish watercolour, which I viewed at the National Portrait Gallery.) When I received the book for review, I was mightily sick of the hoopla surrounding the portrait and began reading Dr. Byrne’s biography with some skepticism. Imagine my joy when the book held my interest from the start.
My preferred image of Jane Austen painted by Cassandra Austen. Image @National Portrait Gallery.
The Real Jane Austen focuses on specific objects, like the topaz crosses that Jane and her sister Cassandra received from their brother Charles. The conversation segued into a discussion of Charles and Frank Austen’s careers in the Royal Navy, and the lives of sailors in general, including that of William Price in Mansfield Park and those of the sailors in Persuasion. Details of letters and visits home flesh out our knowledge of Jane’s relationship with her brothers, as well as the background for some of the characters in her novels. While life on board ship was harsh, a career in the navy was one way in which the Austen men could seek their fortune through promotions and the spoils of war. At the tender age of eighteen, Frank obtained his lieutenant’s commission.
In some cases, early promotion led to discontent among the crews, particularly when over-enthusiastic young officers meted out punishments to their inferiors. Logbooks taken from Frank’s ships show the severity of the punishments. Forty-nine lashes would be given for theft and a hundred for insolence to a superior officer.”
Janeites who have read Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers by John Henry Hubback, Edith C. Hubback, J.H. Hubback would already know many of these sailor details, but they are new for many. Dr. Byrne threads the influences in Jane’s life in such a way that a seasoned Janeite is happily reminded of well-known facts and a new reader is introduced to them in the context of Jane’s life, her letters and novels, and her influences.
Dr. Byrne uses other objects to develop Jane’s biography: a vellum notebook; a card of lace, which led to a discussion of the shoplifting trial of her aunt, Jane Leigh Perrot; the laptop writing box given to her by her father; her royalty check, which confirmed her as a professional writer; and a bathing machine, commonly used by bathers at seaside resorts. While at Lyme, Jane caught a fever and took to bathing to recover, using bathing machines and the services of a dipper named Molly:
Jane Austen enjoyed the experience of being dipped so much that she continued to take advantage: “The Bathing was so delightful this morning and Molly so pressing with me to enjoy myself that I believe I staid in rather too long, as since the middle of the day I have felt unreasonably tired.”
We learn that Jane, while a doting aunt, viewed children much as she did adults – some were simply easier to like than others. Her observation of Anna Lefroy’s girls is not unlike one that I can make of my family members, including myself: “Jemima has a very irritable bad Temper (her Mother says so) – and Julia a very sweet one, always pleased and happy.” Jane fondly thought about her fictional characters and how their lives would unfold, telling her relatives the details of Jane Fairfax’s and Kitty Bennet’s futures, for example – details that we Janeites crave.
There are other pleasant tidbits, of which I shall name a few. They include Tom Fowle’s letter to Cassandra, her fiance who tragically died at sea before he could afford to wed her; Cassandra’s deep romantic nature and her humorous side; the fact that Elizabeth Bridges preferred Cassandra over Jane, whom she did not like; details of Jane’s travels in an age when 90% of the populace sojourned only a few miles from their own community (This proves her to be less provincial than the myth of the isolated, rural spinster); Jane’s knowledge of the larger world, including the Napoleonic wars, slave and opium trades, and life at sea; that serious Frank Austen lacked a sense of humor but that he was quite generous towards the Austen women after Rev. George Austen’s death; and that Henry, Jane’s favorite brother called his sisters and mother “The Dear Trio”.
Frank Austen
Many of these details are well-known to those of us who have researched Jane’s life for a number of years, but their presentation is delivered in a unique package that ties biographical influences to key moments and objects, and that weaves a view of Jane Austen which is both personal and well-researched. Unlike dry scholarly endeavors, filled with footnotes and references and a dense academic tone, Byrne keeps her wide readership in mind with a writing style that is relaxed and quite readable. There are just enough images to add another layer of depth to our reading experience.
Five out of five regency teacups
I recommend The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things highly to readers who are new to Jane Austen’s life and times, as well as to committed Janeites who simply cannot read enough about their favorite author. I imagine there will be some Janeites who will find this biography somewhat repetitive – I am not one of those. My rating is five out of five regency teacups.
Product Details
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (January 29, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061999091
ISBN-13: 978-0061999093
More on the topic:
Jane Austen's World 
Have missed your posts most dreadfully.. glad to have u back and hope u are well..
may buy the book! 5 on 5 is impressive :)
Dear Vic,
I must confess that the publicity about the lost portrait annoys me, too. But your five regency teacups has put the biography on my shopping list.
I hope you are well. Hugs, raquel
Excellent review…thanks!
Thank you for this review. Like you, I was completely put off by the publicity surrounding the portrait (which I do not believe is JA), and had not intended to read this book. After reading your review, I will give it a go.
I enjoyed the review. I think linking the real Jane to real Jane objects and to the books is a good idea. The but comes in when you say “an age when 90% of the populace sojourned only a few miles from their own community”. This is a commonplace which I suggest is well worth serious historical investigation. In other words, is it true in any meaningful sense? I am not sure. The Napoleonic Wars, the burgeoning Industrial and Agricultural revolutions, emigration, were beginning to mix the populations of the British Isles. By 1815 the British army and Navy had about a million men under arms, about a fifth of whom were mercenaries. This is more than 10% of the population, all of whom would have been moved about the countryside and overseas. Mr Wickham is part of a process that included Jane’s brothers in the Royal Navy, Sir Thomas Bertram’s estates in Antigua, and Cheapside, where the Gardiners live. From other research I am doing, Greenock in Scotland had grown considerably in the early 19th c from immigration mainly from Argyll- more than 30% of the population; the Irish were flowing into northern England and the Lowlands as ag. labs. and to work in the mills, a sort of return Irish plantation movement. Read a good history of London and it will quickly become obvious London gobbled up people from all parts of the Empire and the world, and because disease was endemic, it required that immigration to sustain itself-hence the discussion of the London air in Emma among the Woodhouse family-Jane knew it was a disease ridden place. My ancestors would be included in your 90%, except for my gggrandfather who married in Bristol, a city distant from both his and his wife’s home parishes (it is obvious they met there, though why they were there will forever be unknown), and that all my British ancestors after that generation turned up at a port somewhere in Britain and shipped out for the antipodes.
Kevin, thank you for your researched comment, which is most appreciated. Understand that I quoted Dr. Byrne when I mentioned the 90%. Heretofore I have seen figures as high as 75% to 80%. The majority of laborers, workers, and poor lived within a closed, circumscribed distance from their homes.
Definitions need to be taken into account. Once displaced farmers and laborers moved to industrial towns and cities, did they travel or stay in one place? Travel was prohibitively expensive during the early 19th century (Regency era), but became more affordable very quickly as macadam roads improved and early steam locomotives allowed for swift travel. Yes, armies and impressed sailors made up a large part of the population – but how large? And what are the dates? (Jane died in 1817.)
My statements regarding the scarcity of travel among the hoi polloi has been challenged before. This is a subject in which debate is welcomed.
Thanks for this great review. I was also put off by the portrait kerfuffle and had postponed reading this book. When I finally did, last month, almost in one sitting, I was delighted as well. A new perspective on things I thought I already knew.
I am reading this book now and am pleasantly surprised to find it’s not just a repetition of Jane Austen facts that I already know. I’m finding it very enjoyable reading. I never get tired of learning new information about her life and the Regency period. Some day I hope to actually go to England and take a tour of of places I’ve found described in her writing. Until then, I will continue to read all I can about Jane Austen, and I highly recommend this book to my fellow Janeites.
I’ve also read this & recommend it.
Thank you for this post.
I decided that this is the book I’ll receive from my boyfriend next April 23rd, Saint George day.
In Catalonia, this is Book & Roses day. Every person receives a book and the girls, a rose too. :-)
It is our Valentine’s Day, it’s the most romantic and literary day of the year!
Greetings from Barcelona!
Marta
Thanks for the summery, Vic – well written as usual. The book was recommended to me earlier this month and your review confirmed my desire to read it! (Your comments about Netflix and also your addiction to the Regency era made me smile – I’m in that same place right now. So much better that most current tv fare.)