Jane Austen-Her Golden Years Paperback - 2008

From the publisher

Born and brought up in Toronto, Canada, Muriel first encountered Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in an 18th-Century English Literature course at University of Toronto. Intrigued by Austen's style, wit, and characterization, she later read all the novels, the fragments, Jane's letters, and twenty-plus biographies about the author and her family. She found the family members as fascinating as Jane herself! During a two-year sojourn in England, she searched out every place the novelist had lived or visited, staying numerous times in Steventon, Hampshire, Jane's birthplace. During a visit there in 2007, the plan emerged for Jane Austen-Her Golden Years. Degrees in Psychology, Theology, and Education enable Muriel to deal sensitively with the subject matter, and she particularly enjoys the genre of the historical novel, with its unique blend of fact and fiction. She is the mother of two lovely daughters and four delightful grandchildren, and is currently traveling the world! Blending fact and fiction, Jane Austen-Her Golden Years, concentrates on the final two years of the novelist's life, as she moves from obscurity to recognition in the literary world of Regency England. The book introduces her parents and seven siblings, and offers interesting vignettes of Jane's life in the period before her death, at age 41, including flashbacks to her formative years. The interaction highlights her family and faith, indicating her impact on the moral values of the nation at a time when William Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade were part of the exciting panorama of early-19th-Century England. Regular readers of Austen's work will delight in deciphering fact from fiction, and new readers may be encouraged to read all her novels and letters. It is hoped that Jane's effective employment of her gifting and faith in her writing will inspire others to use their gifts in the same impressive manner!