A fresh approach to building the life of Jane Austen through her letters, demonstrating that a well-known life can be reframed by being grounded in evidence of that life The Life of the Author: Jane Austen takes readers on a literary-biographical journey through Austen's life in letters. Using a unique non-linear approach, author Catherine Delafield explores three frames for Austen's literary life--family, correspondents, and fiction--to suggest new pathways for the interpretation of life writing about one of the most popular and influential English novelists of all time. Delafield addresses multiple aspects of Austen's epistolary practice and the ways in which her letters, juvenile writings, and unpublished novels have been overlaid on both biography and fiction. Throughout the text, special attention is paid to the changing view of women's correspondence as personal record and to Cassandra Austen's role as editor of her sister's surviving letters. The book opens with selected readings from Austen's letters and a review of the family treatment of the life. Subsequent chapters discuss the female circle of correspondents in both extant and missing letters, the letter content and structure of Austen's novels, the use of letters as representations of places and spaces based on Austen's own lived experience of epistolary communication, and more. * Discusses how the letters, correspondents, and novels supplement Jane Austen's fiction and substantiate her life * Highlights Austen's use of the letter as a conversation on paper, rather than as an autobiographical tool * Explores the letters within Austen's fictional writing as well as recipes, accounts, and needlework with links to the letters * Features a select chronology using letters as landmarks, tables representing surviving letters by correspondent, and family trees tracing names and relationships The Life of the Author: Jane Austen is an excellent text for undergraduate and graduate courses on the novel, women's writing, British writing, and life writing, as well as for general readers with interest in gaining new perspectives on Austen's chronological life and literary output.

In The Life of the Author: Jane Austen, Catherine Delafield presents a non-linear approach to building and reframing a well-known life. Grounded in evidence of that life - Jane Austen's letters, selected juvenile writings and unpublished versions of her novels - this unique volume explores Austen's literary life within themes of family, correspondent, and fiction.

Delafield addresses multiple aspects of Austen's epistolary practice, such as the use of letters as representations of absence and place and suggests pathways to new interpretations of Austen's chronological life and literary output. The author places particular emphasis on Austen's female circle, the "sisterhood" of correspondents, as well as Cassandra Austen, the editor of the surviving letters. Throughout the book, Delafield considers the ways Austen's life evidence has been applied to both fiction and biography from the nineteenth century to the present.

Featuring a select chronology using letters as landmarks, tables representing surviving letters by correspondent, and family trees tracing names and relationships, The Life of the Author: Jane Austen is a valuable resource for Austen enthusiasts looking for fresh literary-biographical perspectives, and an excellent textbook for undergraduates and postgraduates taking courses on the novel, women's writing, British writing, and life writing.