Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters: A Family Record (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) by William Austen-Leigh, Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh, Sarah Frantz (Introduction)

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Synopsis

Almost one hundred years after the death of Jane Austen, William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh published Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters. A Family Record (1913). The book lovingly details Jane’s birth, childhood, adolescence, and maturity; the everyday minutiae of her life, the circumstances in which she wrote her juvenilia and her six novels, and her early death. Using Jane Austen’s own letters, additional letters sent between a large and fond family, and family reminiscences, William and Richard Austen-Leigh continued the family tradition of carefully nurturing the literary and personal reputation of a literary icon who also happened to be a most beloved aunt.

Biography

William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh were among the many relatives that wrote a biography about Jane Austen. They attempted to bring a measure of objectivity to the family biographies of Jane Austen by consolidating every available source of knowledge about her. William Austen-Leigh, born in 1843, was Jane Austen’s grand-nephew, and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh was William’s nephew.