Sofa Spotlight - The Real Jane Austen, Paula Byrne

Hooray! I have finished this book! Although I feel hooray is the wrong word for this achievement, as it has been one of those books that I didn't want to end. I feel a bit empty now that it is no longer in my life.

It is hooray though, because it is the first time in over a month that I have finished a book. I will celebrate by adding a star to the chart, just as soon as I find the stars. 

Anyway, this was a book about the life of Jane Austen, but it is a different take on the biography. From reading this book I have learnt not only about Jane Austen's life, but also about the time in which she lived and the events and culture that influenced her writing. It has been an education, but a fun one.

What resonated the most with me from this book was Austen's relationship with her sister Cassandra. When reading this book you get the impression that they had a strong relationship and were the most important people in each other's worlds. That is something that I can relate to and if there had been nothing else good about this book, that fact alone would have kept me reading. But it wasn't the only good thing, as this is a book crammed with gems.

At the end Byrne talks about how some of Austen's life is shrouded in mystery, for instance we are not entirely sure what she looked like. In all I loved this book (EG is glad I have finished it as presumably I will stop raving about it) and it has given me an urge to read all the Jane Austen novels all at once.