A very interesting biography; lots of information I would never have guessed. Austen sounds like she was not a particularly nice person, even cutting her some slack for the many disappointments she had in her life. I think I agree with one of the quotes of Virgina Woolf in this book: Given her sharp tongue, I wouldn't want to have been left alone in a room with her. ( )

There are many biographies of Jane Austen available, but I urge readers to include this one. One of the most noteworthy features of Halperin's work is that he does not feel the need to idealize Jane Austen. He therefore enriches his book with information carefully ignored by other biographers.

Austen accomplished the very rare feat of writing books that remain both commercial and popular successes after almost two centuries. I don't see what else she needs to do to be worthy of our attention, and I am exasperated by futile arguments trying to deny her position as a woman of her class and time. I am tired of her biographers "apologizing" or trying to explain away he failure to make direct comments on contemporary politics - her books are probably all the more universal and enduring because she didn't. Rather than making feeble attempts to tie the Elliot's financial misfortunes to general economic trends (instead of their own fecklessness, which is what I believe Austen intended), Halperin quotes very effectively from Austen's letters to show that she was aware of the political and social life around her.

Halperin also portrays her as a much less pleasant person that most authors care to see. His Jane is shown in her letters to be often petty and gratuitously mean, heartlessly witty. The question, which Halperin doesn't really explore, but which might explain some of the discrepancy between the Austens' recollections is, how different was her public persona from her letters to Cassandra? Were the letters an outlet that helped enable her to be pleasant and civil? I am personally think that sincerity and frankness can be much over-rated vis a vis civility and consideration, so I wouldn't fault JA as a hypocrite, if this is true.

Halperin also presents her as decidely less fond of children, or at least young children, than other works. He is ignoring some of the writings about her that are quoted by other authors, but his point of view is well-supported by quotations from her letters. Particularly in combinations with other writers, the reader is left with a much more complex and nuanced view of Jane.

Overall, the book is well written and readable, and unlike some other biographies I could mention, does not go haring off on tangential subjects. Halperin also restrains himself from "overinterpreting" his material, attempting posthumous psychoanalysis and the like.

I am not terribly fond of mixing too much literary analysis with biography, and I disagree with some of Halperin's analysis, but I thought that his review of Mansfield Park with reference to JA's life was very fine and plausible.

I fault this, and all other JA biographies for their treatment of Cassandra Leigh Austen's (Mrs. George Austen's) "hypochondria". I have been told in every biography that she was a hypochondriac, but no-one has made a convincing case for it. The glimpses that one gets of her seem to be of a steady, cheerful, practical woman, not the most likely candidate for hypochondria, although it doesn't rule it out. I am also quite aware that in previous decades, doctors were much more likely to attribute illnesses, particularly in women, to psychosomatic causes, so I would urge modern biographers to re-examine the evidence. The most common quote is Jane's statement that she has little sympathy for a head cold unaccompanied by a fever or sore throat, but I think that may say more about the daughter than the mother. At 52, from my own experience, that of my friends and our parents, I am very aware that there are any number of bodily ills, all the more likely as we reach and pass middle-age, that are not apparent to outside observers, crippling or rapidly fatal, which none the less can cause the sufferer considerable discomfort and inconvenience while draining humor, patience, energy and enthusiasm. Just to name a few: chronic fatique syndrome, arthritis, pruritis, irritable bowel syndrome, incontinence, hemmoroids, insomnia, digestive problems, etc. Mrs. Austen would, in addition, be vulnerable to the ills that result from many closely-spaced pregnanacies, including such joys a varicose veins, joint injuries and a variety of gynecological problems. I would not ordinally fault Halperin individually, but he does carry it to new depths, finding it unreasonable, perhaps even neurotic, for the 72-year old woman to decide that she was giving up travelling in the slow, jolting, dusty conditions that prevailed at the time.

Despite this last grumble, this is one of my favorites among the seven or so biographies that I have read, and the best of the long biographies. For those wanting shorter works, I recommend Carol Shields' Jane Austen (Penguin Lives) and Valerie Grosvenor Myer's Jane Austen, Obstinate Heart: A Biography. ( )