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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 and self-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.
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Jane Austen (1775-1817)Times
19th centuryShowing 9 featured editions. View all 9 editions?
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Jane Austen: An Obstinate Heart
2013, Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated
in English
1611458137 9781611458138
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Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart
2012, Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated
in English
1611456576 9781611456578
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Jane Austen: the obstinate heart
1999, Paragon
in English
- Large print ed.
0754020096 9780754020097
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Jane Austen: An Obstinate Heart
1998, Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated
in English
162872045X 9781628720457
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Jane Austen, obstinate heart: a biography
1997, Arcade Pub.
in English
- 1st North American ed.
1559703873 9781559703871
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Edition Notes
Vert. van: Jane Austen, obstinate heart : a biography. - London : Michael O'Mara Books, cop. 1997.
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- Created September 8, 2013
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September 8, 2013 | Edited by Lestevenon | Added new cover |
September 8, 2013 | Edited by Lestevenon | Edited without comment. |
September 8, 2013 | Created by Lestevenon | Added new book. |