I forgot when I did my book haul post yesterday, about the book sale one of the local churches was putting on today.  This is the second of their sales I've been to, and I am now a fan - not a big selection, but lots of quality.

 

Books I've never heard of before but looked good:

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things - Paula Byrne 

A Small Unsigned Painting - Stephen Scheding 

A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure - Marlena De Blasi 

O Christmas Three: O. Henry, Tolstoy, and Dickens - Leo Tolstoy,Charles Dickens,O. Henry 

 

Books I've seen/heard of before and have been moderately interested in reading:

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco 

Brother Cadfael's Penance - Ellis Peters 

At Bertram's Hotel - Agatha Christie 

Murder on the Links - Agatha Christie 

 

That last one, I bought not only because I'm eventually going to read all of Christie's work, but because the pulpy cover just called to me - I love it!

 

I'll admit, I got a bit mercenary this morning.  On one of the tables was a cache of 5 Ian Fleming James Bond paperbacks.  Old 60's editions in good condition, for .50 each.  I've read a few book articles lately about people searching for the old paperback editions, so I grabbed them.  Then, I had a fit of conscience, because I have no desire to read James Bond.  So I put them back and about 10 seconds later, a guy grabbed all of them and walked away, which made me feel both better about myself and like I wanted to kick myself too.  

 

I moved on, and on my last run of the tables (to make sure I hadn't missed anything), I found all 5 of the books again - the guy had changed his mind and put them back.  So this time, I grabbed them.  I'm not sure what the heck I'm going to do with them, but one of them is a first edition.  I am going to try to put my conservation lessons to the test and gently clean them up - then decide what to do from there.

 

          

Mary Robinson made some fascinating life choices, which are here outlined in painstakingly accurate detail. Sadly, the reader has to supply all the excitement, sympathy, outrage, and regret, as the author carefully sticks to only the documented facts. I'm confident that this is an excellent work of history, but it is not very readable. I made it as far as Mary's return from France (about 2/3 of the way through the book), but when she started her poetry career I had to put it down. Byrne's dry prose, broken up with excerpts of 18th Century British poetry, was just too tedious. Not recommended.

This one almost snuck by me. I love period pieces, so I have no idea how this wasn't already on my list to read.

 

"The sensational tale of the first mixed-race girl introduced to high-society England and raised as a lady...

The illegitimate daughter of a captain in the Royal Navy and an enslaved African woman, Dido Belle was raised by her great-uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, one of the most powerful men of the time and a leading opponent of slavery. When the portrait he commissioned of his two wards, Dido and her white cousin, Elizabeth, was unveiled, eighteenth-century England was shocked to see a black woman and white woman depicted as equals. Inspired by the painting, Belle vividly brings to life this extraordinary woman caught between two worlds, and illuminates the great civil rights question of her age: the fight to end slavery."

 

 

 

 

In my book, Jane, Actually,1 one of the characters writes a biography with the title, The Real Jane Austen, that “examines the personality of Jane Austen with the tools of modern-day medicine, forensic psychiatry and textual analysis.” Fortunately, Paula Byrne’s The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, takes a far more relaxed and charming approach to telling Austen’s story.Rather than starting with her birth and ending with her death, Byrnes focuses on objects—jewelry, paintings, notebooks, etc.—with which Austen might or might not have been familiar. All the objects were from Austen’s times and some were owned by Austen or her family. Some items are pedestrian: a card of lace similar to the lace Austen’s aunt was accused of stealing; and some are touching: an ad for the auction of household items from the Steventon parsonage; and some are calculating: a royalty check Jane received for sales of Emma.The first item tells us that Jane lived in a world very different from us. Her Aunt Leigh-Perrot might have been executed or transported to Australia if convicted of the crime; and Mrs. Austen offered to send Jane and Cassandra as companions to her aunt while she was being held over for trial (in other words to stay with their aunt in jail).2 The second item hints at how much of a shock it must have been for Jane to leave Steventon for Bath after her father retired as rector. And the third reminds us that Jane was no naif when it came to business. She made some hard-headed business decisions and worked hard at developing her career and reputation (although in this instance, her decision to reprint Mansfield Park at the same time she was publishing Emma backfired).Byrne chooses several illustrations to tell her stories, including a watercolor of Lyme Regis, two paintings of sisters, another of a pair of women also shown on the book cover, and of course the sketch Byrne champions as being a representation of Austen drawn from life. It’s understandable that Byrne should include it—her husband gave it to her as a present, thinking it was an “imaginary portrait” (an idealized portrait). And she concludes the book (the epilogue) with another “portrait” of Austen. This watercolor, painted by Cassandra Austen, shows her sister from behind (seen right). Byrne calls it the only “irrefutably authentic image of the real Jane Austen.”I have to wonder at this last statement because the National Portrait Gallery seems to recognize that the unfinished pencil sketch/watercolor portrait seen left, also created by Cassandra, portrays Jane. I’ve also heard it called the only authentic image of Jane Austen. It doesn’t matter that many people dislike the image it offers of our favorite author.I definitely would have included this portrait were I to write a biography told by objects. I’ve said several times in this blog how affected I was by seeing it in the National Portrait Gallery.This oversight, however, is my only complaint about The Real Jane Austen, and I had to work hard to find it. You will probably not find anything that displeases in this delightful alternative to the traditional biography of Jane Austen, especially if like me you‘ve already read several such biographies. After all, there are few facts about Austen’s life that you don’t already know. The joy of The Real Jane Austen is discovering Jane through the context of time in which she lived, without all the forensic psychiatry and textual analysis.1 Sorry to sneak in a plug for my book.2 Byrne thinks Jane’s wealthy Aunt Leigh-Perrott was guilty of shoplifting.

A fascinating and well-written book about the life of Jane Austen as seen through a collection of objects that she used. There are writing books, a writing slope, a card of lace, a shawl from India, and the like. I really enjoyed reading this method of writing, and the end result was a deeper look at what and where and who Jane Austen used to create her novels. Along with the narrative, there are drawings and photographs of the objects, along with extensive notes and a bibliography. Five stars overall and a very enthusiastic recommendation from me.

For the longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Paula_Byrne_The_Real_Jane_Austen_A_Life_in_Small_Things_epi/content_618130935428