My first impression of Peter Leithart's biography Jane Austen, was a positive one for the sake of the wonderful book design. The size, paper and overall appearance continues to delight me. And obviously the author did an enormous amount of research in writing the book. Being that he has taught Austen's novels for years, the information given to the reader is incredible. The appendices and notes at the back of the book in themselves run to nineteen pages. That's impressive.But I found the writing to be overwhelming. The number of characters/relatives introduced in the opening chapters, along with the extensive quotes made the book difficult for me to read. I kept having to backtrack, and for the sake of the research given to the task, hesitate to make that criticism. But while I appreciate the direct quotations, and realize the honesty of using them, still, they made the reading confusing to me. It seemed choppy.
For a die-hard Jane Austen fan, this book would be a valuable addition to their library. It would also work well as a textbook for a student wanting to increase his/her knowledge of Austen and her world. For the rest of us, maybe we just stick to the novels.
I'm a member of Thomas Nelson's blogger book review program called BookSneeze. More information can be found at their website.
