MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03278fam a22004338a 4500
001 1978647
005 20220609042351.0
008 970130s1997 nyuaf b 001 0beng
010 $a 97005679
020 $a1559703873
035 $a(OCoLC)36343390
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm36343390
035 $9AMJ5819CU
035 $a(NNC)1978647
035 $a1978647
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dNNC$dOrLoB-B
043 $ae-uk---
050 00 $aPR4036$b.M94 1997
082 00 $a823/.7$aB$221
100 1 $aMyer, Valerie Grosvenor.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80156158
245 10 $aJane Austen, obstinate heart :$ba biography /$cby Valerie Grosvenor Myer.
250 $a1st North American ed.
260 $aNew York :$bArcade Pub.,$c1997.
263 $a9704
300 $a268 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates :$billustrations ;$c25 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520 $aAt 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.
520 8 $aValerie 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.
520 8 $aFor 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.
520 8 $aAs Myer points out, it also enabled Austen to write her immortal novels.
520 8 $aUsing 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.
520 8 $aShe 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.
600 10 $aAusten, Jane,$d1775-1817.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79032879
650 0 $aWomen novelists, English$y19th century$vBiography.
852 00 $bbar$hPR4036$i.M94 1997
852 00 $bglx$hPR4036$i.M94 1997
852 00 $boff,glx$hPR4036$i.M94 1997