Jane’s closest and dearest confidante in all this and throughout her life was Cassandra; together they lived, making and mending, at the edges of Georgian gentility, an environment which explains Austen’s fictional arrangement of some fantastic marriages and inheritances. But wishful thinking did not blind this author to the realities of lives more ordinary. She wrote directly from her own society and its times making, as Worsley writes, ‘the political into the personal’. Her first readers would have been familiar with her portraits, for example, of warfare at sea through her depictions of young William in Mansfield Park and of the older Captain Wentworth in Persuasion. Jane would go with her rich and self-indulgent uncle to drink the waters at Bath’s Pump Room. He kept the whole Austen family on tenterhooks about what he’d do with his money. Lucy Worsley succeeds in presenting a three dimensional Jane Austen in this fascinating biography. She shows how the Austen family tried to sanitise the picture which was presented to the world after Jane's death but the evidence is still there if you choose to look for it. By reference to previous biographies, primary sources, the novels themselves and the juvenilia the author pieces together a very much more robust picture - warts and all.

Jane Austen’s Stuff, and What We Learn From It

Jane’s sister destroyed many of her letters deemed ‘personal’ and those which survive have been described as ‘mundane.’ Lucy Worsley disagrees and finds delight in the trivia. She says, ‘...her personality is there, bold as brass, bursting with life, buoyant or recalcitrant as each day required. These letters are a treasure trove hiding in plain sight.’ I was also fascinated to realise Jane knew her letters could be read aloud, often over breakfast, so used a code known to her sister to ensure discretion. The influence behind Austen’s novels is obviously discussed, but Worsley brings forward new and interesting ideas. The idea of Austen as a “modern” woman who didn’t like having to do domestic chores is explored along with the subtlety of her novels and where the original spark of imagination for her writing came from. I love that Worsley suggests that this may have come from Austen’s time at the Abbey school Reading, though I may be bias as I was born in Reading.E, come filo conduttore, la casa, un tema fondamentale nella vita e nelle opere di Jane Austen, che fu costretta a cambiarne molte nella sua vita, e che per questo fu ossessionata di trovarne una per le sue figlie letterarie. Lei, che sentì come "casa sua" solo due luoghi: la canonica di Steventon in cui nacque e il cottage di Chawton in cui andò ad abitare dal 1809 e che sancì la fine dell'incubo di essere sballottata da una parte all'altra dell'Inghilterra, tanto che, come dice Lucy Worsley:

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley | Waterstones

Jane Austen at Home is divided into four major sections, titled as acts in a play. I thought this a lovely touch by Ms. Worsley, reminding readers of the Austen family’s love of amateur theatricals. “Act One: A Sunny Morning at the Rectory” covers Austen’s early life at Steventon Rectory in Hampshire (1775-1801). During this period, Jane traveled to relatives’ homes and even lived away at boarding schools for several years. Nonetheless, Steventon remained her place of safety until her father’s retirement forced Mr. and Mrs. Austen, along with Cassandra and Jane, to move to Bath. P.S. Много от местата, на които е живяла или посещавала, все още съществуват и са отворени за нейни почитатели – страхотна идея за литературно пътуване In 1764, the year George and Cassandra had married and moved to Hampshire, there had been great rains at Deane: ‘the Wells in the Parish rose to their Tops, and Fish were taken between the Parsonage Yard & the Road’.8 The other freak of nature to be seen in Georgian Deane was its enormous cabbages; a neighbour grew one ‘five feet in circumference in the solid part, and [which] weighs upwards of 32 lbs’.9 Meanwhile, down the lane in the neighbouring parish of Steventon, the high winds of February had blown down the church’s timber steeple.10The cottage at Chawton looks charming in this image painted by Jane’s niece Anna, but its proximity to a pond and a busy road made it less than perfect as a home. While Jane did not forget Lyme, the town did not forget her, either. You can still eat at Jane’s Cafe, walk in Jane Austen’s Garden, and buy souvenirs in the Persuasion gift shop today.” As the book and Jane's life progresses the writing, the talent and the struggle to be published are covered; so well and so clearly with detail that one feels in the room when Jane meets a publisher or writes to seek a deal or help. We read of her brother's help to get a deal...but it is neither perfect or the step hoped for. L’amatissima sorella Cassandra distrusse centinaia di lettere, molte altre furono espurgate dai nipoti vittoriani che misero le mutande ad ogni frase o parola potesse ledere il santino. A refreshingly unique perspective on Austen and her work and a beautifully nuanced exploration of gender, creativity, and domesticity.' Amanda Foreman