I have to make a confession. I'm not a fan of Jane Austen but if anyone is going to convince me otherwise, it's going to be Lucy Worsley. Has she done it. I think, to a degree, yes. I mean, I still don't think I'm ever going to be a huge fan-girl like some but I definitely feel as though Austen' work makes a bit more sense now. I think, if a book like this had existed when I was forced to read Austen at 17, I might have tried to appreciate her a bit more.

Jane Austen is one of the most well known and most beloved writers in the English language, but what do most of us really know about her?

British treasure Lucy Worsley is here to set that straight, giving us a thorough look into Jane's life at each of her homes. Worsley's writing style is characteristic of her documentaries - full of personality and her unique voice. She not only offers us the story of Austen's life but brings it to life for the reader. Many see Austen as a writer of domestic fiction, inferior to contemporaries and other classic female writers like the Bronte's. However, Worsley shows us just how insightful and clever Austen's work really is, reckoning with big social issues and change, and offering witty commentary on her times.

Far from being the 'spinster' novelist, we see Austen as a young woman, determined to gain her independence and earn a living from her writing, to support herself in a world which forced her to depend upon the charity of family members. This book shows Austen as a revolutionary, paving the way for the writers that followed her.

This may be non-fiction but Worsley crafts a story that is as easy to read as any fiction. We get rich detail about the material lives of the Austen's, building up a detailed picture of the homes the family lived in and how they shaped Austen's life and her novels. The book explores the places she loved and loathed, the people who had an impact on her life and work and Austen's own interior life through her writing and letters. Worsley explores Austen's life with great insight and empathy, showing us Austen's successes and failures, her struggles and her loves. If you are a Jane Austen fan, this is the perfect book to find out more about this wonderful author and her life.

I am currently re-reading (and enjoying) Pride and Prejudice in anticipation of a three class sequence in early December. This will be about the fourth time that I have read P and P. It continues to enchant and feels like the perfect read for our current unsettled times.

While reading, I remembered that I had not yet read Jane Austen at Home, even though I have had this title for quite some time. Well, this was just the right moment to read it as it has offered yet another lens through which to see P and P and its author.

Lucy Worsley is known to many because of her tv appearances. She is also a writer, and a good one. This title is a biography of Jane Austen that focuses on the many places where she spent time and the importance of home. (Perhaps she was in advance of Virginia Wool’s A Room of One’s Own.). Ms. Worsley reminds the reader that it was often through marriage that women secured a safe place to live. This is one reason that Charlotte Lucas chooses her husband in P and P.

Throughout this book was an engaging read. I highly recommend it to Austen fans.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

""Jane Austen at Home offers a fascinating look at Jane Austen's world through the lens of the homes in which she lived and worked throughout her life. The result is a refreshingly unique perspective on Austen and her work and a beautifully nuanced exploration of gender, creativity, and domesticity." - Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgianna, Duchess of Devonshire

On the eve of the two hundredth anniversary of Jane Austen's death, take a trip back to her world and the many places she lived as historian Lucy Worsley visits Austen's childhood home, her schools, her holiday accommodations, the houses - both grand and small - of the relations upon whom she was dependent, and the home she shared with her mother and sister towards the end of her life. In places like Steventon Parsonage, Godmersham Park, Chawton House and a small rented house in Winchester, Worsley discovers a Jane Austen very different from the one who famously lived a 'life without incident'. Worsley examines the rooms, spaces and possessions which mattered to her, and the varying ways in which homes are used in her novels as both places of pleasure and as prisons. She shows readers a passionate Jane Austen who fought for her freedom, a woman who had at least five marriage prospects, but - in the end – a woman who refused to settle for anything less than Mr. Darcy. Illustrated with two sections of color plates, Lucy Worsley's Jane Austen at Home is a richly entertaining and illuminating new book about one of the world’s favorite novelists and one of the subjects she returned to over and over in her unforgettable novels: home."

With what's going on with my blog right now you think I'd forgo a chance to promote a Jane Austen book?

I like the unique format of this book. Jane Austen's life is explored through the homes in which she lived. I think the Austen fans at my library will like it.

I love Lucy Worsley's documentaries and her writing style is just as engaging. Nice to read about Jane Austen's life in the context of society at the time.

Lucy Worsley is nothing if not thorough and while I appreciate her narrative I found this tome a bit meandering and dare I say boring -- for long stretches. However, she does gives us a fully fleshed out biography and offers up nuggets that may surprise even the most ardent Janeite. Worsley's love for her subject is felt throughout and it does make one want to go and re-read every one of Austen's novels, but I could do without the detailed descriptions on the mundane and get to the good stuff, i.e. Ms. Austen's love life. Worsley comes through, but it does not have quite the pizazz of a romantic turn. The conclusion ends with little fanfare and the storytelling is overall ho hum, but the Austen's portrayal rings true.

A fascinating look at the world of Jane Austen. I love the fact that not only are you learning about Jane Austen's life but her life in relation to the social world she lived in. Definitely a must read for any Jane Austen fan.

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley.* I will read pretty much anything about Jane Austen though my favorite book about her is Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin. I didn't feel this offered anything unusual or new but I enjoyed it and thought it was written in an engaging manner. I was worried about that since I saw the TV show based on this with Worsley and I had not really enjoyed it. I found her a bit irritating. I think everyone feels their Jane Austen is the real Jane Austen and Worsley is no exception. Her conclusions from things Austen wrote or said are not necessarily my conclusions. Of course, I am not an Austen scholar but still...my Jane Austen is the real Jane Austen, right? Some of it was a bit too speculative for me. Do we really need to debate whether Austen ever had lesbian sex or any sex at all, for that matter? And what was that about the titillating effects of bathing in the sea? But, all in all, enjoyable though not the best book about Austen that I have ever read.

I loved this book and the perspective of the author. Looking at the multiple living situations of Ms. Austen gave great insight into the settings of her many books. Lucy Worsley is such an enthusiastic fan: you can feel her excitement for the topic and it really elevates the tone of the book. Anyone who is obsessed with the First Lady of British Society and Manners would love this book.

I was in heaven, hearing this whole book spoken in Lucy's voice while reading--a wonderful, well-researched book about Jane's homes through her life. But also about the other people she loved with in those places. Lucy gives Jane's history a slightly feminist view as well, which is natural and delightful. I highly recommend this for all Jane devotees. And double good if you're a Lucy fan. (Watch her accompanying show, too!)

I think it was a foregone conclusion that I would really enjoy Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen at Home. I have loved Jane Austen’s books for many years, going back to when I was about 12 and read Pride and Prejudice for the first time. I’ve previously read Carol Shields’s biography Jane Austen and Claire Tomalin’s Jane Austen: a Life so there was really very little I learned reading Jane Austen at Home that surprised me or that I hadn’t known before.

I suppose what was new to me was the emphasis on what home life was like during the period of Jane’s life and seeing photos of the houses and places that she had lived or stayed in as a visitor. And I think I gained a better understanding of the social history of Georgian England and of Jane’s wider family connections and what her family and friends thought of her both as a person and as an author.

Lucy Worsley is an historian and has presented several television history programmes. I am not a great fan of her style – the play acting and dressing up – but she writes in a lively, chatty style and reading her book I could easily hear her voice. Jane Austen at Home is both very readable and very detailed, which is not an easy thing to achieve. There is an extensive section at the end of the book, listing sources, a bibliography, notes on the text and an index. There are two sections of colour plates.

Needless to say it has spurred me on to re-read Jane Austen’s books, and I shall probably begin with re-reading Emma, a book I’ve only read once.

I received an e-galley from the publishers via NetGalley for review and part way through reading it I bought a hardback copy to get the finished product.

I included Worsley's book in my recent bicentenary roundup of new Jane Austen material, because of its unique lens through which it considers the author.

This well-researched and engaging insight into the beloved classic author is a must-read for all Austen fans.

2017 marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death. Historian Lucy Worsley's new book, Jane Austen At Home, gives us a peek into her home life and family relationships. Austen's life was not one of excitement, but a life lived within the constraints of society. Worsley does not fictionalize or sensationalize, but gives facts and details about Austen's life in a witty and engaging style.

This is the first book by Worsley that I have read, but I have watched several of her historical documentaries. Her wit and humor make history interesting and accessible. I found her book to be much the same. Some of the events in Austen's books mirror challenges or hardships faced by her and her family. I find I have a greater understanding of her writing and characters after reading this book. I can't imagine living within the constraints of Georgian society. An unmarried woman could face huge financial and property issues...not to mention the difficulties faced by female writers. The fact that Austen faced these challenges and produced several books that remain widely popular after 200 years is astounding and beautiful.

It took me several days to finish this book because I read it a little bit at a time. I enjoy historical non-fiction in small bites, rather than gulping my way through it all at once. I think this is why I enjoyed this book so much....rather than reading it quickly and getting bogged down in all the detail, I took it slowly and savored my time in the Austen household. It was so interesting learning about what actual life was like for Austen and other women of the time period.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in history and Austen's writing! I hope that Worsley does a documentary or series on this topic as well!

Worsley is the author of several books on history including The Courtiers, The Art of the English Murder and If Walls Could Talk. For more information on her books and television documentaries, check out her website here: http://www.lucyworsley.com/

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from St Martins Press via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.**

A new biography of Jane Austen, structured around the various houses she lived in. It's a neat approach to organizing a life-story, though ultimately I don't think it influenced the text as much as I'd expected it to.

This is the first Austen biography I've read, so I can't say how it compares to others. It didn't include anything I was particularly shocked to learn, but then she didn't really have a life full of surprises, did she? Worsley describes herself as writing against the Austen family's early portrayal of Jane as a modest, virtuous aunt; she heavily emphasizes Jane's anger and sarcasm in her surviving letters, her ambition in seeing her books published and being paid for them, and the existence of her brother George, who was sent away to live with caregivers due to his epilepsy and whose existence was hidden by the family. It's an easy, enjoyable read, even if there doesn't seem to be much new or different here. Worsley does expect her audience to be very familiar with Austen's books, frequently dropping in allusions to characters or plots, but on the other hand, that's probably a fair assumption of the self-selecting audience of an Austen biography.

I liked it, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a biography out there that does the job better.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2078294466

This meticulously researched and enchantingly written biography is an essential read for any Austen fan. The use of the various homes where Jane spent her life as focal points for a description of the people she was surrounded by, and in turn the influence of these places and people on her writing is a clever device, and one that is used very effectively by the author. Staring with the home Jane was born into, and following each move of household through the course of time, we learn about her family, both close and extended, and the social customs and mores of the time. The relationships she had with family often made their way into her writing, for example she had a strained relationship with her mother, but was very close to her sister, a situation mirrored by Lizzy Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. Although Jane never married, she was not without suitors, and again it is quite likely that some of these characters also influenced some of her writing. It was fascinating to learn about the difficulties she encountered in being published, and the risks she was willing to take, to see her books in print. The author is not afraid to cast a critical eye on the sanitised version of Jane her family tried to present after her untimely death at a young age, and instead she presents a woman who was intelligent,determined to the point of stubborn, loving towards her family, and unwilling to settle for less than she deserved.
I received a review copy from NetGalley.

A fun look at a favorite time in history and literacy!!

Lucy Worsley is a brilliant historian and writer, i've greatly enjoyed her other work and was eager to read this book about one of my favorite authors. It was fascinating and she delved deeper into Jane's life than other books i've read. I'm going to go and buy the book as soon as i can.