Life in Bath and later Southampton (1801-1809) is detailed in “Act Two: A Sojourner in a Strange Land.” During this time, Jane’s father died, leaving the Austen women dependent on Jane’s brothers for financial support. Austen, along with Cassandra and Jane, to move to Bath. Nonetheless, Steventon remained her place of safety until her father’s retirement forced Mr. During this period, Jane traveled to relatives’ homes and even lived away at boarding schools for several years.

“Act One: A Sunny Morning at the Rectory” covers Austen’s early life at Steventon Rectory in Hampshire (1775-1801). Worsley, reminding readers of the Austen family’s love of amateur theatricals. Jane Austen at Home is divided into four major sections, titled as acts in a play. Her great contribution was to push those doors open, a little bit, for us in later generations to slip through.” (4) “Jane’s passage through life, so smooth on the surface, seems sharply marked by closed doors, routes she could not take, choices she could not make. Where could she afford to live? Amid the many domestic duties of an unmarried daughter and aunt, how could she find the time to write? Where could she keep her manuscripts safe?” (1) Worsley seeks to place Jane Austen “into her social class and time” while admitting that, as an Austen reader and biographer, she has a vision of the beloved author that allows Jane to speak for her and to her circumstances. As Worsley notes in the book’s introduction, “For Jane, home was a perennial problem. These are the real places and real things that inspired me when I was writing my story set at the palace, ELIZA ROSE.What can the places that Jane Austen called home tell us about the author’s life and work? In Jane Austen at Home, historian, author, and BBC presenter Lucy Worsley looks at the author’s life through the lens of Austen’s homes. She has fronted programmes including The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain, A Very British Romance and co-presented A tour of Eliza Rose’s Hampton CourtĪ lovely spring day at Hampton Court yesterday so out I went with my camera to make a photo tour for you. Good afternoon! Here, in case you missed it, is a little interview for you, from THE LADY magazine… LUCY WORSLEY …is a historian, author, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, and presenter for the BBC. To celebrate the publication of THE AUSTEN GIRLS, my friends at Good Housekeeping magazine have kindly run an interview with me conducted by the imitable Ella Dove … thank you! She makes no apology for dressing up to make history more interesting, and here Lucy Worsley talks to Ella Dove about her passion for the past, My interview in The Lady magazine If Walls Could Talk: An intimate history of the home PRICE: £7.69įrom My Blog An interview in Good Housekeeping to celebrate THE AUSTEN GIRLS.

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley