Jane Austen at Home is an entertaining and informative read. While I have been a huge fan of Austen's works for many years, I have never read anything biographical about her, so I was deeply interested to learn more of her family and life. Worsley's work centres around Jane's various homes over the years and the impact they had on her circumstances and her writing. Naturally, though, she also considers familial relationships and friendships, taking us through the changing (often for the worse) fortunes of the Austen family. Overall, Jane Austen at Home is an engaging work that will appeal both to Janeites and to students of Georgian history. 4.5 stars

Great "behind the scenes" look at Jane Austen who is one of my favorite classic authors. Well written, lots of information you wouldn't know just by reading Austen's stories on the surface. A book that makes you feel as if you are visiting an old friend. Enjoyed it very much.

Lucy Worsley is easily my favourite historian (yes, it is possible to have such things, I also adore Kate Williams and Greg Jenner as very close seconds) and coming from her previous books, this doesn't disappoint. We start with her introduction and what Austen means to her, and from there we launch into the early life of Jane. Worsley has seemingly everything at her disposal - letters sent to and fro from uncles and brothers-in-law, describing the nearby relatives and their health and complaints, as well as what the land was like around Steventon Rectory.

Mostly we come to learn as to what inspired Austen, and the themes of the books and how they reflect her life at the time. One may think that Austen's books are all romance, when in fact Worsley points out well-thought observances about what else surrounded Austen, and what was truly important to her.

Although Worsley is a huge fan, she still accounts for Austen's life quite fairly and matter of fact, not trying to twist the few facts known into something a bit more exciting or bittersweet. With wit and fondness, we come to learn about Austen from her highs and her many lows, and everything in between.

Split into four parts, we go from the younger years to when she had to travel, to being published and then the disasters. We then also have 42 pages of bibliography and notes, so if one ever wanted to look into anything (literally anything at all), Worsley has already done the hard work for us.

Throughout, Worsley speaks to the reader as if you're old friends, chatting over a cup of tea in front of a roaring fire. She's so constantly excited without failing enthusiasm about history, and her warmth could inspire anyone to find some enjoyment in the same. I would think that anyone would be able to find something in this - whether you've researched Austen before, or only read a few of her novels up until now.

This was a joy to read, and highly recommended.

I have been reading Jane and about Jane for thirty-nine years. I found Jane Austen at Home to be revealing and thoughtful, expanding my understanding, and bringing Jane to life as a living, breathing woman. I so enjoyed every bit of Jane Austen at Home.

"Miss Austen's merits have long been established beyond a question: she is, emphatically, the novelist of home."Richard Bentley, publishing Jane Austen's novels in 1833

Worsley offers this quotation at the beginning of her Introduction. The search for home is central to Austen's fiction, Worsley contends. Jane herself lost her first home, the Stevenson parsonage, upon her father's retirement. She moved from rental to rental before her eldest brother Edward, adopted into a wealthy family, offered his mother and sisters Chawton Cottage.

Austen's characters are in need of a home, have lost a home, are concerned about home in some way. Charlotte even enters a loveless marriage with Rev. Collins to have a home. And yet Jane turned down the opportunity to be a woman with a substantial home with the brother of her dear friends.

The book is about the importance of 'home' and how Jane was impacted by her homes. It is also about family, and friendships, and love affairs, and the greater world, and most of all, Jane's dedication to her novels and how she used the world she knew to create her fictional worlds.

The book appears in four acts, a nod to Jane's love of theater and plays.

Act One: A Sunday Morning at the Rectory presents Jane's childhood home and younger years, including her teenage trip to the Bath "marriage mart."
Act Two: A Sojourner in a Strange Land follows Jane and her family into the series of rental homes, vacations, and visits after her father's retirement from ministry: Bath, Southampton, Lyme Regis, and their Bigg's friend's home Manydown. All of these locations appear in her novels.
Act Three: A Real Home finds Jane, Cassandra, their mother and Martha Lloyd living in a gifted home provided by Edward (nee' Austen now Knight).
Act Four: The End, and After concerns Jane's later years, last novels, and illness and death.

It was interesting to read that, based on a pelisse Jane may have worn, her measurements were 33-24-33 and that she was a stately 5'7" tall. The small waist would have been from wearing stays as a girl. She had high cheek bones and full cheeks with good color, and long light brown hair with a natural curl.

Jane had many suitors over her life; those who perhaps she wished would make an offer did not, and those who showed interest or did offer she turned down. As Worsley remarks, consider the novels that would never have been born had Jane wed! Had she married she may have ended up like her niece Anna, worn out by age thirty from successive pregnancies.

Jane died two hundred years ago. Her family lived into the Victorian Age and endeavored to make Jane palatable to the new era by presenting a pious and loving Aunt Jane who excelled at spillikins. The real woman had a sharp wit and acerbic pen which she employed to earn money to live on. And Mrs. Austen, for all her ailments, loved to put dig her own potatoes and muck about in the kitchen garden! No wonder this Austen family seemed lacking in sophistication by Victorian standards.

The impact of slavery, plantations in the Caribbean, and the Napoleonic Wars on Jane's world and her family are also shown. With brothers in the navy, relatives invested in slave plantations, the bank failure of one brother and an aunt who was charged with shoplifting, Jane's life was anything but sheltered!

I am asking for this book as a birthday present, to sit on my shelf with my Jane Austen sets.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Jane Austen is a household name, and we know very little about her. Historian Lucy Worsley seeks to change that by focusing on the famous author's life at home-- and lack there of one. What emerges is a story of the precarious business of being a woman in Georgian England. Your home is wherever your male relations deem to keep you. And it was no different for Jane Austen. When her father retired, she lost rights to her beloved childhood home in Stevenson, and all of her possessions, including books, were sold for the trouble. It began an almost nomadic existence for the unmarried Austen women, dependent on the generosity of more moneyed relations, living wherever they could be stashed conveniently and cost effectively.

Worsley ties the circumstances of Jane's home life to that of the characters in her novels. For me, it's a bit contrived. Worsley's writing style is enjoyable, and infused with a wit would make her idol proud. Even so, I found this book dragged. There really isn't enough known about Austen to write a full length biography. I commend Worsley for not going down the road of many of her predecessors in trying to sensationalize or romanticize Austen or make her life into more than what it was. However, what that leaves is a short, rather dull story. Is it possible that someone so endearing and sharp in print as Jane Austen was in fact boring in life? Yes, I think so.

Worsley makes her 350 pages by shifting focus to many of Jane's relatives. I read an advanced copy, so I don't know what changes have been made to print, but a family tree would have been a helpful addition. It seemed like every other female relative was named Fanny, and it was difficult to follow at times. This isn't a bad book, and Worsley is a good writer and historian, but it was a bit of a chore at times and not nearly as engaging as I'd hoped.

What a comprehensive account of the life of Jane Austen all told in Lucy Worsley's unmistakable voice. Indeed, as I read this book, I could imagine Worsley reading it to me with all the gusto she puts into all of her history programming. The book focuses on the domestic life of Jane Austen and runs chronologically from before she was born to after she died. It also details each dwelling of her life and the consequent ups and downs associated with them. I felt that perhaps a little more could have been included about Austen's novels, but in fairness this does not purport to be a literary assessment of her life. I found the glimpse into Austen's character very revealing and overall think this is a great book of accessible history for anyone who considers themselves to be a fan of Austen or indeed, anyone who has an interest in the late Georgian and early Regency period.

"Jane Austen at Home" is a look at Jane Austen's life from the perspective of what her daily life was like. Starting with her family and her birth, we learn what the house was like, how she was educated, what her social life was like, and so on. The author used letters, guidebooks from the time, old records, etc., to reconstruct what her daily life was like throughout her life and in different homes. She included many quotes from Jane's letters to her sister (and others), so we get to hear Jane's opinions in her own words.

The author mentioned Jane's marriage prospects and her path to publication, but she brought out the reasons why she might choose to marry or reject an offer and looked at how Jane found time to write, how she lived with a brother (who was her advocate with the publisher) when double-checking the galleys, and so on.

I really enjoyed how she pointed out real people and occurrences that happened in Jane's life that have echoes in novel. Since I enjoy learning about Georgian and Regency daily life and enjoy Jane Austen's stories, I found this book enjoyable on many levels. I'd highly recommend this interesting book.