Jane Austen wrote about the English gentry class in the late Georgian
and Regency periods (1796-1816). Her novels follow her heroines' quests
for true love and fulfilment in English society during a period of great
upheaval. But how accurate were Jane Austen's depictions of life in
England? Was marriage really the only ambition for women at that time?
Were all men as dominant and powerful as Sir Thomas Bertram in Mansfield
Park? Was London really as corrupt and immoral a place as that book
suggested? What was it like to live in a society governed by strict
codes of etiquette and conduct? Helen Amy draws on Austen's life and
works, traces her travels around the country and features places of
significance to her whilst also examining English society's apparent
obsessions with fashion, entertainments, courtship and manners. Jane
Austen's England features chapters on London, Bath, Cheltenham,
Winchester, Steventon, Chawton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Lyme Regis,
Brighton and Worthing together with the grand country houses, such as
Godmersham House, The Vyne and Stoneleigh Abbey, which inspired Austen's
fictional houses. Helen Amy opens a window onto this fascinating period
of history, examining the places and culture of the times, with over 130
superb period illustrations and colour photographs.
