{"product_id":"only-a-novel-the-double-life-of-jane-austen","title":"Only a Novel: The Double Life of Jane Austen","description":"\u003cp\u003eJane Aiken Hodge\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFawcett - Nonfiction\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eUsed Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eCover has wear mostly around the edges and corners. Inside cover is slightly tanned. Spine has creasing. Pages are clean no internal tears, marks, or creases.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn her lifetime, Jane Austen did her best to conform to the conventions of her day, and after her death the family touched up the picture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut the real Jane Austen, who started as author at twelve years old, was something very different.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat depths of intellectual and moral despair must she have plumbed before she achieved the extraordinary moral vision that has been compared, with justice, to Chaucer's?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt was a fortunate thing for her family that the highly polished surface of the six novels, their sheer artistry concealing tension, makes it easy to miss the depth and bitterness of what they are often saying.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe must look for real evidence about her character not in the censored reminiscences of Victorian relatives, but in the books and the letters themselves.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJane Aiken Hodge has gone deeply into the novelist's own writings, family and contemporary records to produce a new picture of this enigmatic figure who did so much to revive the English novel at the beginning of the nineteenth century.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJane Austen appears at once as a very warm and human figure (the \"dear Aunt Jane\" of the Victorians), and as a baffling one.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDid she, in fact, suffer what we should call a nervous breakdown in her silent, middle years?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd was she content with her publishers, and with the comparatively modest earnings of her novels?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHodge does not pretend to provide final answers to these and other fascinating questions, but she is meticulous in giving the facts on which readers can base their own conclusions.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is a book for those who have always loved Jane Austen, and for those who would like to know more about her.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI-3\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hasberts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50340049289528,"sku":"","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0291\/9192\/9890\/files\/b5_868f4fe2-5359-4a96-a39b-9771b7d750ea.jpg?v=1763526292","url":"https:\/\/hasberts.com\/products\/only-a-novel-the-double-life-of-jane-austen","provider":"Hasberts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}