Jane Austen, obstinate heart : a biography

by Valerie Grosvenor Myer

Paper Book, 1997

Status

Available

Publication

New York : Arcade Pub., c1997.

Description

At the heart of Jane Austen's story lies a mystery: how a woman of genteel poverty, the seventh child of a country clergyman, an unmarried spinster for whom life was often a struggle against the indignities of financial dependency, could have produced works of such magnificent warmth and wisdom. Valerie Grosvenor Myer's flawless research proves Austen's books grew from the preoccupations of her social set - respectability, financial security, and most of all, marriage. It is a truth universally acknowledged, begins Pride and Prejudice, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. In that one line are revealed the principal forces at work in Austen's novels - and in the world from which they were drawn. For many middle-class women of Austen's day, marriage was paradoxically the only method of achieving independence. Marriage could also be a life sentence. Myer shows that by many accounts Austen was pretty and flirtatious (though occasionally also sharp-tongued), and the object of at least two proposals, but obstinate in her refusal to marry for other than love. Her obstinacy condemned her to reliance on her family for financial support. As Myer points out, it also enabled Austen to write her immortal novels. Using letters, family memories, and of course the novels themselves, Myer provides a detailed and revealing look at Jane Austen - her relationship with her beloved sister Cassandra, her devotion to and pride in her brothers and their children (who remembered Aunt Jane with warm affection), and her independence of mind and spirit. Austen's fondest dream was to establish herself not as another silly female novelist, but as a serious andself-supporting writer. She reveled in the reviews of those of the novels published - anonymously - during her brief lifetime. Yet as Myer shows, no one, least of all Austen herself, could have imagined her posthumous popularity.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member PuddinTame
This is a very good biography for readers who want a fairly straightforward, reliable, moderate length account of Austen's life. Among the seven biographies that I have read so far, I think that this is the best first choice for readers who want more than Carol Shield's well-done Jane Austen, part
Show More
of Penquins short biography series, but who don't want to tackle a book as long as John Halperin's Life of Jane Austen, nearly twice the length of this. Halperin weaves a lot more quotes together to build his narrative,something that I found disconcerting when I was younger, although I like it now. I leave the reader to determine their own taste. (As a teenager, I regarded books made up largely of quotes as most people regard books with mathematical formula.)

Myers organizes her work both chronologically and thematically, discussing all of JA's romances and potential romances in one chapter, and then alluding back to them when she returns to chronological order. She recounts standard interpretations, but allows for some alternatives; she duly records that Mrs. Austen was regarded as a hypochondriac, but notes that her frequent pregnancies may have left her with problems of which we are unaware.

Some of the reviewers have complained that Myers does not contribute any new research, but frankly I think that there are probably few facts to add to what is already know and a readable biography is itself a great accomplishment, and preferable to inventing wild theories to gain a little publicity. Some other authors that have produced more research into the minutiae of Georgian-Regency life thereby scant JA's life or hare off on tangents that may try some readers' patience. While I personally adore all this somewhat extraneous detail, it is best preceded by reading a book like this that gives one a solid grounding regarding JA's life. Others make up for a lack of new information by posthumous psychoanalysis and mindreading, not something that I encourage.

The reader should be aware that the book is serious flawed by a lack of notes. I don't know if this was the author's or the publisher's choice. The book generally accords with what other biographers write, so I am fairly confident of the facts, but when Myers makes an unusual assertion, such as the claim that Cassandra Leigh didn't really want to marry George Austen, this is very irritating.

In all, I think this is a good choice for entering into a study of JA's life, one that can be enriched by reading other books later.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RachelfromSarasota
This is a well-written attempt to discover the undiscoverable. Jane Austen, like many of her contemporaries, was a prolific letter writer, but her sister Cassandra burned most of those letters shortly before her own death. So Austen fans are left with a number of superficial details about
Show More
Austen’s life, interspersed with comments from the few surviving letters. Austen led a fairly retired life, having never married, devoted to her extended family, but struggling always with what was known as “genteel poverty.” The book is chock-full of details, and acute analysis of character, but ultimately leaves a frustrating gap in the inquiring reader’s mind – who was the young man Austen may have been (and probably was) in love with, and why did she turn down his proposal? An interesting and detailed account of the life of a spinster aunt in Regency England – but less vivid to me than the memoirs of some of our American diarists.
Show Less

Language

Page: 0.3101 seconds