Got this for a Christmas present! Woot!First part of my Review: The Editing. Le Faye's work is a concise, scholarly job; this book deserves the reputation it has. It is as heavily detailed and full of excellent minutiae as JA's letters. Included are all the lists you'll need to understand the reading: places mentioned in the letters, general index, list of initials used in reference, bibliography, even a biographical index of the people JA talks about. One thing struck me here: JA had such an in...

Even if these letters weren't by Jane Austen, they'd be worth reading for the way they take you right into the lives lived by the lower country gentry in the late Georgian era. The quiet country life? It's worse even than Shetland ... a constant round of calling on neighbours and them calling on you, keeping in touch with relatives by letter, dinner parties, balls, theatres, visits of a fortnight or more with other relatives ... and in among that you had to harvest your fruit and vegetables and

More of Jane Austen’s personal correspondences... interesting reading, she writes letters just as well as she writes novels

At first glance this letter collection may just seem like trivial tales of an uneventful everyday life - but under the trifling discussions of silk stockings, dinner menus and minor balls lies the heart of the most accomplished writer who ever lived. These letters offer intimate insights in Jane Austen's way of thinking, reasoning and living. This book is the most direct impression one could ever gain of Jane Austen herself. And it is fascinating. From the loving, gentle and comforting letters t...

This was a really great look into this time period - although I was painfully aware that this was a well-to-do white woman, especially when she seemed to spend a lot of her time discussing gossip, visits, and clothes. I liked the second half better, when she's talking more about writing and events, and there are more letters to her nieces and nephews. What an excellent large family! I especially admired Cassandra and Jane's close relationship.

Her wit and humor resonate on every page—find out just how delightful Jane would be to sit next to at a dinner party, and how much more clever her catty observations would be than your own. Exceptionally footnoted by scholar (and Austen devotee) Deidre Le Faye.

A close reading of these letters quickly dispels any illusions of Austen as a proper, humourless, spinster aunt. Austen's letters are funny, witty, and occasionally downright cruel.

A comprehensive collection of Jane Austen’s letters. Less fervent Austenites can get away with reading a selection of letters, but if you love her as much as I do and want to drink up anything and everything you can about her life and writing, this is the book you want. It not only has all of Jane’s surviving letters and letter fragments but also some additional letters written to or about Jane (including the one Cassandra wrote right after Jane died—excuse me while I go cry). This edition also

Fascinating.

This was a wonderful collection of letters. Austen had an amazing command of words and you see her wit and imagination shine through in every seemingly little detail of daily life and gossip. Not exactly sure why I'm only giving it four stars, perhaps because I would have enjoyed reading it better in a different format, perhaps because I mourn the days of letter writing, perhaps because of the sadness that none of these wonderful communications were directed to me by what was obviously, an admir...

Sometimes I don't want to know who the authors are because I only want to know them through their fiction and not the non-fiction which is their lives. But these letters help you understand that Jane was alive and well despite her lack of a fortunate marriage. These letters show that she was simply applying herself to her life not in an effort to prove or show anything - more for something to occupy her hours. Not a bad way to spend your time - certainly beats youtube.

Jane Austen's letters are wonderful reading--pithy, scathing and hilarious observations of her world and the people in it to her sister Cassandra, and interesting advice on writing and love to her nieces Anna and Fanny. For the Austen aficinadoas, I'd definitely recommend this complete, chronological collection of the known surviving letters over some of the illustrated compilations out there.

A joy to read. It's like having afternoon tea with Elizabeth and Jane Bennet, or Marianne and Elinor Dashwood. All the tidbits of daily living, in such a neighbourhood as theirs, circa late 18th, early 19th Century. Nothing could satisfy more!

Originally published at Majoring in Literature.There is something decidedly voyeuristic about reading the private correspondence of another person. Even if that person happens to have died almost two hundred years ago.Collections of Jane Austen's letters have been around since the 1930s, when R. W. Chapman first began assembling them for historians and lovers of the famous author to peruse at will. Since then many have been rediscovered, and the collection has grown with every new edition.So wha...

I read this collection of Jane Austen’s letters at the prompting of a reading challenge. I’m so grateful to have read them. It was nice to catch a glimpse of the real personality of one of my favorite authors. Her keen observations of her social circle and kind but thoughtful literary advice to her niece made the letters worth reading. I cried at the end when a couple of letters from her sister after she passed were included. I hope to come back to these again some day.

I found Austen's letters quite interesting, but this is a terrible edition--no footnotes or editorial apparatus, and so poorly bound that by the time I finished pages were falling out.

When reading Jane Austen's letters I have felt they lacked a more personal feeling, they felt like events of people with hardly any comments but telling of scenery. When I was about done, I decided to look up what Wikipedia mentioned about her life and death. I posted below why the letters seemed dry, the purging of undesirable comments. "There is little biographical information about Jane Austen's life except the few letters that survive and the biographical notes her family members wrote.[7] D...

I listened to Austen's letters over the last month. Her wit is extraordinary (though sometimes mean), and can take the mundane details of clothes, budgets, and visits and make them fascinating. The reader (via Librivox) brought her letters to life, making it feel as if Austen was writing to you. Finishing the final letter felt like saying a heartbreaking goodbye to a beloved friend. I loved hearing the names of familiar characters in her neighbors and friends, and I wished I had a biography open...

Intended more for scholarly readers than a casual audience, this is exactly what is says, a collection of every surviving scrap of letter Jane Austen wrote to anyone (mainly family) during her lifetime. Everytime someone writes a preface to her books, or creates a new biopic they look here for what she was really like. I did learn that the letters that were destroyed and censored by her surviving sister usually had to do with areas where she had described physical symptoms or made mildly dispara...

This is the complete collection of the surviving letters of Jane Austen (about 150) and a must-read book by all of her fans. This will give you the chance to take a peek inside the mind of this witty genius. Most of Jane Austen's letters in this are addressed to her sister Cassandra, but there are also letters to her brothers, friends, and towards the end, her nieces and nephews as well as publishers. For those who are interested, the very first letter has its mention of Tom Lefroy. (personally

Excellent. Conscious of every word she puts down, as one might expect such a great stylist to be. I can't help but hold it against Cassandra Austen that she burnt a good number of Jane Austen's letters. Written with a good deal of irony and sensitivity; the snippets -- few as they are -- regarding her art and the art of others are quite invaluable. The only thing that irked me was 1. the loss of letters, attributable to CEA, and 2. the proliferation of dashes and lack of paragraphing which made

It's Jane Austen's letters, enough said, really.I wish there were more, but I cherish what we have, every trimmed bonnet, every ell of lace, every bit of fretting about who her niece is going to marry. It's fascinating actually to consider how many people write books set in the period without having read these, when they're so full of the minutiae.And... this isn't a review, but it's a response. I wouldn't have written this without reading these letters: https://www.patreon.com/posts/jane-au...

This is an amazingly well researched book of JA's letters, notes on pretty much everything you can think of (watermarks, postmarks, corrections she made, historical information), multiple indexes. I did struggle with this book, due to its size and flipping back and forth - I read the letter first, then the notes for that letter. I would recommend this (hardcover) book to anyone who loves JA, with scholarly ambitions or just for pleasure.

I am a JA addict. I read her books and letters over and over again. This time I am struck how kind and loving she was to her nieces, especially Fanny Knight, and what a backstabbing niece Fanny was much later in life toward her dead aunt.

A great read for any Austen fan! I particularly enjoyed reading her love advice and when she'd mention her characters.

I've read many of Austen's letters and loved them, and while I intend to finish this edition, there's quite a lot to get through for one big chunk of reading. Will have to read in smaller pieces.

It gives a great insight into Jane Austen's character and also what Cassandra Austen may have been like. Very interesting.

What else is there to say about Jane Austen's letters? A glimpse of a life, and nothing more. Tantalizing and endearing and faithful to the end.

Do not assume that because you love Jane Austen’s novels you’ll love her letters. Most of these are entirely domestic, particular, and dull; only a few are of any interest, and none are exceptionally interesting, unless to Austen scholars or students of the period.The essential problem is this. The vast majority of the letters are to Jane’s sister Cassandra. These deal with the minutiae of upper-class English feminine life at the turn of the 19th century: births, deaths, visits, marriages contem...

DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. I REPEAT, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Do not read it unless you are prepared to fall in love with Jane Austen more than you probably already do, if you're even considering reading this book. Do not read this book unless you are prepared to laugh at her wit and her humor in the letters. Do not read this book unless you are prepared to, once in a while, utter an amused (and scandalized), "Jane!". Do not read this book unless you are prepared to start feeling like she truly is one...