The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne

The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne

In The Real Jane Austen, acclaimed literary biographer Paula Byrne provides the most intimate and revealing portrait yet of a beloved but complex novelist.

Just as letters and tokens in Jane Austen's novels often signal key turning points in the narrative, Byrne explores the small things - a scrap of paper, a gold chain, an ivory miniature - that held significance in Austen's personal and creative life.

Byrne transports us to different worlds, from the East Indies to revolutionary Paris, and to different events, from a high society scandal to a case of petty shoplifting. In this ground-breaking biography,  Austen is set on a wider stage than ever before, revealing a well-traveled and politically aware writer - important aspects of her artistic development that have long been overlooked.

The Real Jane Austen is a fresh, compelling, and surprising biography of the author of some of our most enduring classic books - from Pride and Prejudice to Sense and Sensibility, Emma to Persuasion - and a vivid evocation of the world that shaped her.

Belle: The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice, The Real Jane Austen, and Crazy World: Evelyn Waugh and the Mysteries of Brideshead are among Paula Byrne's critically regarded biographies. She and her husband, scholar and biographer Jonathan Bate, live in Oxford, England.