Here’s a New Approach to Writing a Biography
Book Review: The Real Jane Austen, A Life in Small Things, Paula Byrne
by : Jeanette Taylor
“Perhaps you’re writing a biography and want a fresh approach? Or maybe you’re a fellow “Janeite” longing for new insights into the author’s inspiration and ideas? Both can be found in Paula Byrne’s new biography The Real Jane Austen, A Life in Small Things (2013). Byrne approaches her subject from a unique perspective. She drops the linear path, starting from Austen’s birth on a snowy winter morning in 1775, as in Claire Tomalin’s atmospheric biography. Instead Byrne breaks Austen’s life into subjects, to show us her major influences, from her family setting to the influence of her brothers, her passion for theatre to her moral code. More than any other biography to date, Byrne’s approach reveals the sources for Austen’s inspiration for her characters and settings, entering each new area of her life with a significant personal object as her metaphoric entry point.”
Cited Web source : Jeanette Taylor (2015) . “Book Review: The Real Jane Austen, A Life in Small Things, Paula Byrne” , The Scribes, 2015 ,Available from: http://thescribes.ca/a-new-approach-to-writing-a-biography-of-jane-austen/ (Accessed March 14 2015)..
The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things – Amazon.com
