Jane Austen Treasury, The

Description

The Jane Austen Treasury is a delightful collection of facts and insights into the life and times of the great novelist and the attitudes and customs that shaped both her and her work. Taking each of her novels in turn, and exploring both underlying themes and historical context, it reveals the complexities that underlie her simple and timeless romances. Featuring her views on love and marriage, women's rights and society's mores, this beautiful volume looks at the facts of Austen's life and times, as well as little known stories about her novels, including: - The marriage proposal that Austen accepted, only to change her mind - The mock grown-up fiction she wrote as a child - Her personal connections to the Napoleonic Wars - How her love of puzzles and verbal games influenced her writings

Janet Todd is an authority on literature and culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Aberdeen University and the President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She is the author of many books on women in literature. Her books include Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life and Jane Austen in Context.