Jane Austen
A Companion
Description:... This companion aims to act as a general guide to Jane Austen, her work and her world. Josephine Ross explores the literary world at the turn of the 19th century: the books considered classics then, the horrid novels and romances of the time, the lending libraries and grasping publishers. She looks at the architecture and decor which then made up the profusion and elegance of modern taste: Nash houses for instance, Chippendale furniture, picturesque scenery. She shows readers the fashions of the time, and the subtle ways Jane Austen used clothes to express character. Courtship, marriage, adultery, questions of class and rank, the ordinary life of meals and mealtimes, travel, doctors and dentists, work, responsibility and amusement all appear, as does the wider political and military world - especially the Navy, in which her brothers served.
Show description