Jane Austen At Home: A Biography

Author: Lucy Worsley

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $22.99 AUD
  • : 9781473632202
  • : Hodder & Stoughton
  • : Hodder Paperbacks
  • :
  • : 0.37
  • : March 2018
  • : 198mm X 129mm
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  • : April 2018
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Lucy Worsley
  • : Paperback
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  • :
  • : English
  • : 823.7
  • : near fine
  • :
  • : 496
  • : BGL
  • : 2 x 8 page colour insets
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Barcode 9781473632202
9781473632202

Description

"Jane Austen at Home offers a fascinating look at Jane Austen's world through the lens of the homes in which she lived and worked throughout her life. The result is a refreshingly unique perspective on Austen and her work and a beautifully nuanced exploration of gender, creativity, and domesticity."--Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgianna, Duchess of Devonshire Take a trip back to Jane Austen's world and the many places she lived as historian Lucy Worsley visits Austen's childhood home, her schools, her holiday accommodations, the houses--both grand and small--of the relations upon whom she was dependent, and the home she shared with her mother and sister towards the end of her life. In places like Steventon Parsonage, Godmersham Park, Chawton House and a small rented house in Winchester, Worsley discovers a Jane Austen very different from the one who famously lived a 'life without incident'. Worsley examines the rooms, spaces and possessions which mattered to her, and the varying ways in which homes are used in her novels as both places of pleasure and as prisons. She shows readers a passionate Jane Austen who fought for her freedom, a woman who had at least five marriage prospects, but--in the end--a woman who refused to settle for anything less than Mr. Darcy. Illustrated with two sections of color plates, Lucy Worsley'sJane Austen at Home is a richly entertaining and illuminating new book about one of the world's favorite novelists and one of the subjects she returned to over and over in her unforgettable novels: home.

Reviews

A sprightly new take on Austen's life. * Mail on Sunday * An interesting portrait of Georgian and Regency material culture. There's much intriguing historical detail. * Literary Review * Worsley offers us much that Austen's admirers wish to know... [she] is entirely convincing. * New York Times * A deep, prolifically researched dive into the houses, vacation homes, and schools where the author spent her life. * Vogue magazine * Rarely, if ever, will you encounter a historian so in command of their material. Truly, this is a dazzling exercise in persuasion, written with sense and sensibility. * Saturday Express * Brilliant and very moving, this book is a fascinating and original exploration of Jane Austen with lots of new material - Worsley brings Austen to life superbly, through her pages she is a flesh and blood woman, intelligent, powerful, contradictory, loving, loved. A magnificent book. * Kate Williams * A vivid portrait of Jane Austen. A must for any Austenite. * Red magazine * Jane Austen at Home offers a fascinating look at Jane Austen's world through the lens of the homes in which she lived and worked throughout her life. The result is a refreshingly unique perspective on Austen and her work and a beautifully nuanced exploration of gender, creativity, and domesticity. * Amanda Foreman * This is my kind of history: carefully researched but so vivid that you are convinced Lucy Worsley was actually there at the party - or the parsonage. * Antonia Fraser *

Author description

Lucy Worsley is an historian, author, curator and television presenter. Lucy read Ancient and Modern History at New College, Oxford and worked for English Heritage before becoming Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, based at Hampton Court. She also presents history programmes for the BBC including 'Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley' and 'Lucy Worsley's Reins of Power: The Art of Horse Dancing'. Her bestselling books include A Very British Murder: The Curious Story of how Crime was Turned into Art, If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home, Courtiers: the Secret History of the Georgian Court and Cavalier: The Story of a 17th century Playboy.