Books like Jane Austen's World by Maggie Lane

Roald Dahl’s humorous memoir of his early years, from birth through his time at an English boarding school and his first job at Royal Dutch Shell.

"Becoming Jane Austen shows how Jane Austen's own personal experiences resonated throughout her work, from her juvenilia to Sanditon. Two people, above all, affected her life and caught her imagination. The first was her flirtatious and exotic cousin, Eliza de Feullide, married to a French count who was later guillotined. The second was the young Irish lawyer, Tom Lefroy, with whom Jane fell in love and whom she hoped to marry. Jon Spence traces the deep emotional impact that her encounters with Eliza and Tom had on her, and shows how she worked this out in her life and in her work, including in her major novels." --Book Jacket.

""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"--|cProvided by publisher.

This book is a masterful and eminently readable presentation of the life and works of England's greatest woman novelist and easily the most beautifully illustrated book on that author that has ever been published. Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels is essential reading for students of literature and of social history and for all Jane Austen and enthusiasts who want to gain new insights into her work. Eminent Austen scholar Deirdre Le Faye presents a meticulously researched overview of life in early 19th century England, from foreign affairs to fashion, from transport to drains; she goes on to consider each novel individually, explaining its action, its setting, the reaction of public and critics and Jane's own feelings about the book. - Back cover.

Penelope Lively’s memoir, Oleander, Jacaranda, traces her childhood in 1930s–40s Egypt, from fellaheen villages to the Gezira Sporting Club, blending vivid memories of Nile wildlife with reflections on culture and identity.

Explore Jane Austen’s personal world through her letters, revealing her witty voice, family life, friends, and the social scenes of her time.