For all the delicate grace with which Claire Tomalin depicts the society and extended family of Jane Austen, Austen herself emerges from these pages as a pretty tough cookie: an exceptionally intelligent woman who knew her own mind from an early age, a doting aunt, but also an astute observer of domestic dramas; a guarded, and occasionally downright sardonic, presence; a creature of strong emotions, but almost totally unsentimental. In prose as sharply insightful as Austen's own, Tomalin recreates the atmosphere in which those six brilliant novels were written; and her literary interpretations are both enlightened and enlightening.
Arminta Wallace