Drawing on diaries, memoirs, and letters written by members of the Austen family,this sympathetic and probing biography enters the private world of Jane Austen, revealing experiences and observations she drew upon to write such masterpieces as Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. Austen's childhood is recreated, sketching her devotion to her ambitious parents and drawing a lively picture of Jane's two brothersone of whom served with Nelson's navy at Trafalgarand of Jane's closest confidante, her elder sister Cassandra. Set against a backdrop of rural Hampshire and Bath, Austen's life moves between a closely observed domestic setting with family and friends to descriptions of dances and parties, social mores, and malice. This account brings new insights into her checkered love life, her moments of loneliness and frustration, and her ironic appreciation of her situation as an intelligent, economically dependent woman.