5 h 52 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How does Jane Austen write without a study of her own, in the midst of family life?
In Memoir of Jane Austen, her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh gathers family letters, stories and his own boyhood memories. Readers want to know the woman behind Pride and Prejudice and Emma. He offers a gentle, affectionate portrait, preserving recollections as the people who knew her grow few.
The memoir follows Austen from Steventon, where her father George Austen is rector, through family moves, loss and life at Chawton. Alongside these changes come glimpses of her writing in the family sitting room. Her nephew presents a cheerful woman with gentle wit, while showing the home and relationships around her work.
What you’ll discover
- A nephew’s remembered aunt Meet Austen through boyhood recollections and family stories, told by someone who loves her.
- The world of Steventon Explore the Hampshire village and family home that shape her world and her eye.
- Writing among the family Picture a working novelist in the sitting room, with no study to call her own.
- Letters and gentle wit Find the affectionate, cheerful figure her nephew describes through memories and letters.
- A portrait with a viewpoint Discover the loving family account that shapes how readers picture Austen for decades.
Who will love it
For readers of Jane Austen's novels who love discovering how she lived and wrote, and anyone curious about Georgian country life, family memories and the everyday setting of her work.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A nephew becomes the keeper of her memory
- Steventon shaped her world and her eye
- She wrote quietly in the family sitting room
- Moves, loss and a cottage at Chawton
- Her character, her letters and her last illness
- How the memoir shaped her image and how it has been read
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- Hardcover
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Mémoires de Jane Austen
by James Edward Austen-Leigh · 1870
In a shared sitting room at Chawton, Jane Austen writes as family memories preserve the woman behind the novels.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
In 1869 a clergyman named James Edward Austen-Leigh published a short life of his aunt. She was Jane Austen, who had died in 1817.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A nephew becomes the keeper of her memory
Austen-Leigh begins by explaining why a life of Jane Austen is needed so long after her death. Her own brothers and sister were gone or very old, and the people who had known her were growing few. He felt that if the family did not record what it remembered, nothing trustworthy would remain. He also admits at the start that the material is slight, because her life was quiet and had few dramatic events.
That honesty shapes the whole book. He does not promise scandal or adventure. He promises a faithful picture of an ordinary, well-ordered life, and he argues that her fame rested on her books alone. In his view she lived without any wish to be known as a celebrity, and the memoir tries to respect that.
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What is Memoir of Jane Austen about?
It is a short biography of Jane Austen by her nephew. It covers her family, her childhood at Steventon, her years at Chawton, how she wrote and published her novels, her character, and her death in 1817.
Who wrote Memoir of Jane Austen and when?
James Edward Austen-Leigh, her nephew, wrote it. It was first published in 1869, and a second edition with extra material appeared in 1871. He drew on his own memories and those of other family members.
Is the Memoir of Jane Austen accurate?
It preserves many real family memories and is still used by scholars. But it is a loving, polite portrait, and later biographers have argued that it leaves out her sharper side and her professional drive.
The author
James Edward Austen-Leigh
1798–1874 · English biographer and clergyman
James Edward Austen-Leigh (1798–1874) was an English clergyman and a nephew of Jane Austen. He was born at Steventon in Hampshire and later served as vicar of Bray in Berkshire. He wrote A Memoir of Jane Austen, published in 1869, and expanded it for a second edition in 1871.
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