The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

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.