Read this book after it was recommended by another attendee to a Jane Austen’s House virtual talk.

It’s not a Jane Austen biography per se but a series of connected studies which offer social commentary and historical context of Jane Austen’s six major novels. However, they do interweave Jane’s life and family to add evidence to the authors argument. 

I don’t know if I’d go so far to say it’s hypocrisy, but there are times the author says we can’t ever really know what Jane Austen truly meant or know the real time a book was set because the dates don’t match a calendar and Jane is known to revisit manuscripts over the years and there is no accurate documentation but then seems to insist they are correct. I don’t dispute they may very well be correct and seem to back it with historical fact (love a cite your source) but, and I don’t really know how to articulate it, sometimes it didn’t sit right with me. 

I’m glad I read it, the history buff in me loved it, the Jane Austen fan feels a little bit scolded for not reading Jane’s works in the “correct” social context and missing some of the meanings and imagery. Sometimes though, I just want to get lost in Austen, as with any other good book, and not worry about the world. 

What did annoy me is that the audiobook did not precisely follow the text book. I was jumping between because ‘life’ and I noticed differences in what I was hearing and what I was reading.