Jane Austen: A Family Record A Family Record

An account of Jane Austen??'s life, background and literary career drawn largely from family letters and diaries.

This book is the outcome of years of research in Austen archives, and stems from the original family biography by W. and R. A. Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: her Life and Letters. Jane Austen, A Family Record was first published in 1989, and this edition incorporates information that has come to light since then, and provides new illustrations and updated family trees. Le Faye gives a detailed account of Austen's life and literary career. She has collected together documented facts as well as the traditions concerning the novelist, and places her within the context of a widespread, affectionate and talented family group. Readers will learn how Austen transformed the stuff of her peaceful life in the Hampshire countryside into six novels that are amongst the most popular in the English language. This fascinating record of Austen and her family will be of great interest to general readers and scholars alike.

Illustrations; Foreword Joan Impey; Preface; Acknowledgments; Notes and Abbreviations; Chronology of Jane Austen's life; 1. Austens and Leighs, 1600–1764; 2. Deane and Steventon, 1764–75; 3. India and France, 1752–85; 4. Childhood and Steventon, 1775–86; 5. Family Life, 1786–92; 6. First compositions, 1787–92; 7. The young Jane, 1792–6; 8. Later years at Steventon, 1796–9; 9. The Leigh-Perrots and Bath, 1799–1801; 10. Bath and the West Country, 1801–4; 11. Bath and Southampton, 1804–8; 12. Southampton and Chawton, 1808–9; 13. First publication, 1809–12; 14. Pride and Prejudice, 1813; 15. Mansfield Park and Emma, 1814–15; 16. Emma and Persuasion, 1816–17; 17. Biography, 1817 and after; References; Bibliography; Family pedigrees; Origin and descent of biographical information on Jane Austen.

This account of Jane Austen's life, background and literary career collects together all the documented facts concerning the novelist, illuminates her place within an affectionate and talented family group, and shows how she transformed the stuff of her life into six of the most popular novels in the English language.

Deirdre Le Faye has been actively researching the life and times of Jane Austen and her family for the last thirty years. In 1995 she prepared a completely new edition of Jane Austen's Letters. She has also written several other books: a short illustrated biography, Jane Austen (1998), Jane Austen's 'Outlandish Cousin', the Life and Letters of Eliza de Feuillide (2002), and Jane Austen: The World of her Novels (2002), as well as numerous articles in literary journals.