JANE AUSTEN

Current reading: The Life of Jane Austen written by John Halperin.

Published in 1984, this is very much a literary biography and it helps to have read at least some of her books. Halperin uses the letters that still exist and the themes of Austen's books to paint an altogether different kind of portrait than I have seen before.

It is known that a large number of Austen's letters were destroyed by her sister after her death in a seeming attempt to edit information about her character. From other sources, I have read about the too good to be true persona that many sources project about this author. This book paints an altogether more human picture showing Austen in her melancholy moods as well as at her sparkling best.

Austen did not really like children, was intolerant of noise and bustle especially as she got older. She was moody, some times cranky as well as being very bright and witty. One thing that I had not been aware of was that any married women took social precedence over any unmarried woman in the social milieu of the day. That was especially true if the woman was someone of limited financial means. For women, rank could only be had by marriage or money and Jane Austen had neither.

Ironically, Jane Austen in her life was a spinster aunt in financially embarrassing circumstances. In history, she is one of the finest novelists in the English language.