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Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Praise

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

1 - 1775

2 - Meritocrats

3 - Boys

4 - School

5 - The French Connection

6 - Bad Behaviour

7 - Weddings And Funerals

8 - Neighbours

9 - Dancing

10 - The Doll And the Poker

11 - A Letter

12 - Defence Systems

13 - Friends in East Kent

14 - Travels with My Mother

15 - Three Books

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16 - Twenty-five

17 - Manydown

18 - Brotherly Love

19 - A Death in the Family

20 - At Chawton

21 - Inside Mansfield Park

22 - Dedication

23 - The Sorceress

24 - College Street

25 - Postscript

Appendix i - A NOTE ON JANE AUSTENS LAST ILLNESS

Appendix ii - AN AFRICAN STORY FROM FANNY AUSTENS POCKET-BOOK,

1809, WITH A NOTE ON ATTITUDES TO SLAVERY

Notes

Short Bibliography

About the Author

ALSO BY CLAIRE TOMALIN

Copyright Page

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 For my
good neighbours,
Sue and David Gentleman

5
The uneventful nature of the authors life . . . has been a good deal exaggerated.

Jane Austens great-nephews, William and R. A. Austen-Leigh

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 Acclaim for CLAIRE TOMALINs

Jane Austen

One of those rare biographies you imagine that the subject herself might have
approved. The Philadelphia Inquirer

Scholarly yet empathic . . . [Tomalin] is the finest, most disinterested of biographers.

The New York Review of Books

Like Austen herself, Tomalin writes as an expert on human nature. . . . She is

especially good at deploying small documentary details to great effect. . . . This is the
new life that Janeites and Austenians . . . will want to read. The Boston Globe

Claire Tomalin . . . one of our most painstaking, distinguished and sympathetic

biographers, has produced a portrait of remarkable subtlety. The Economist

Another altogether admirable biographical performance by Claire Tomalin. Fort

Worth Star-Telegram

Tomalin is [a] natural biographer. . . . Throughout her book we feel a watchful

consanguinity with Austen. Los Angeles Times

Jane Austen is written with much the same verve its subject brought to her novels,
and its tale is nearly as absorbing as they. I can think of no higher praise. The
Womens Review of Books

[Tomalins] assessment of the impact of Austens early life on her adult personality is
particularly subtle. San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

Compulsively readable . . . probably the most complete view to date of Austens

sometimes uneasy place in the polite world she describes. The Seattle Times

A fine addition to the Austenophiles library. Chicago Sun-Times

Richly peopled and evocative. The New Leader

Compelling. Tomalin . . . has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Austen family that

enables her to transport readers back to another time and place. Bookpage

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 Steel engraving made in 1869 for the first Memoir
of Jane Austen, from a copy of Cassandra Austens
sketch. There is a look which I recognise as hers . . .
though the general resemblance is not strong,
wrote her niece Caroline.

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 List of Illustrations

FRONTISPIECE

Jane Austen, engraving used as frontispiece to A Memoir of Jane Austen by her

nephew James-Edward Austen-Leigh, 1870

Revd. George Austen, miniature ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Mrs. George Austen, ne Cassandra Leigh, silhouette ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Cottages at Steventon, drawing by Anna Lefroy (collection of the great-grandsons of

Admiral Sir Francis Austen)

James Austen, miniature ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Edward Austen, later Knight, detail from a portrait painted during his Grand Tour,
1789 ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Henry Austen, miniature, c. 1820 ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust) Cassandra Austen,
silhouette ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Francis Austen, miniature ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Jane Austen, pencil and watercolour on paper, by Cassandra Austen, c. 1801 (The
National Portrait Gallery, London)

Charles Austen, portrait by R. Field, 1807 ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Steventon rectory (front view), drawing by Anna Lefroy (collection of the great-
grandsons of Admiral Sir Francis Austen)

Revd. George Austen presenting his son Edward to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Knight,
silhouette, c. 1778 ( D. Rose Esq./Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Mrs. Tysoe Saul Hancock, ne Philadelphia Austen, after a miniature by J. Smart (

Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Warren Hastings, portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1768 (The National Portrait Gallery,
London)

Eliza Hancock, miniature ( Jane Austen Memorial Trust)

Chteau de Jourdan, photograph (collection of the author)

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William John Chute, pastel and pencil portrait, 1790 (The National Trust, Southern
Region)

Mrs. William Chute, ne Elizabeth Smith, drawing (The National Trust, Southern
Region)

Thomas Vere Chute, drawing (The National Trust, Southern Region)

John Portal of Laverstoke and Freefolk, painting by Henry Calvert (private collection.
Photo: Nathan Kelly)

Hon. Newton Wallop, Leavers portrait from Eton (The Trustees of the Portsmouth
Estates. Photo: Nathan Kelly)

Hon. Coulson Wallop, Leavers portrait from Eton (The Trustees of the Portsmouth
Estates. Photo: Nathan Kelly)

Sir William Heathcote, the Revd. William Heathcote and Major Gilbert out Hunting,
painting by Daniel Gardner (National Trust Photographic Library/John Hammond)

St. Nicholas Church, Steventon, photograph (Hampshire Record Office

65M89/Z217/1)

Page from the Marriage Register of St. Nicholas Church, Steventon (Hampshire
Record Office 71M82/PR3)

West doorway of St. Nicholas Church, Steventon, photograph (Hampshire Record

Office 65M89/Z217/12)

Thomas Langlois Lefroy, miniature by G. Engleheart, 1799 (Photo: Hampshire Record

Office 23M93/83/1/1)

Manydown, from Select Illustrations of Hampshire by G. F. Proser, 1833

James Leigh-Perrot, miniature by J. Smart (Hampshire Record Office 23M93/51/2/1)

Mrs. James Leigh-Perrot, ne Jane Cholmeley, silhouette ( Jane Austen Memorial

Trust)

Revd. (Isaac Peter) George Lefroy, miniature (Helen Lefroy)

Mrs. George Lefroy, ne Anne Brydges, miniature (Helen Lefroy)

Godmersham Park, Kent, from The History and Topographical Survey of the County
of Kent by E. Hasted, 1799

Mrs. Thomas Knight, ne Catherine Knatchbull, portrait by George Romney (private

collection)

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