Voices from the World of Jane Austen

Jane Austen, arguably still the most popular novelist ever, spend much of her life between 1775 and 1817 shut away in the depths of rural England. Her books evocatively inform our vision of the times, but they are only the starting point for the much wider view of the world contained in these pages – one of stark contrasts between rich and poor, married and single, men and women. Now these lives are revealed in all their detail through the eyewitness accounts of those who lived them as well as the words of Jane herself. Marriage, Wealth and Breeding – and why a ‘good match’ was so vital for any self-respecting family. Work and Social Rank – and how your job defined your social position, from landed gentlemen to country parson. Education and Upbringing – how boys went to school and university, and girls got the governesses. Politics, War and Industry – the cries for change, the beginnings of social reform and the privations of conflict. Health and Illness – and how riding, walking and taking the waters kept the Georians fit.