Thursday, December 09, 2010

Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence

Forgive me, bloggers, for I have sinned, it has been two days since my last blog.

When I received this book from a friend, I questioned its quality because I thought it was published in order to get money off of the success of the movie, Becoming Jane. But actually this book was published BEFORE the movie, and the movie was apparently inspired by the idea that Jane Austen was in love with a guy that she wasn't able to marry in the end.

Becoming Jane Austen, however, focuses on Austen's life and writing, rather than on some short-lived possible romance. I really liked seeing the connections Spence made between events that were happening in Jane's life and events that ended up in her writing at the same time, and also the connections between real-life people and their fictional alter egos. It was all very well-researched, too, with lots of quotes from actual letters from the time and other documents. Yay documents! I love primary sources. ^_^ The book is organized chronologically, as biographies tend to do (but not always), and is just a really fun read, even for people like me who have a hard time reading nonfiction. :) If you're interested in Jane's life, very recommended! There wasn't as much about her writing life as I would have liked, but there was plenty, so I think I was just really interested in that aspect.

1 comment:

Snazel said...

You are forgiven. Go, and blog much more.

Well yes, I can't think of any movie novelizations that are better than the movie.

"I love primary sources." You're so cute. :D