No one outside the family knew that she was writing at all, but inside the family it was one of those secrets everybody knows. Even the littlest niece, keeping close to Aunt Jane for the loveshe always found there, knew that something unusually exciting wasgoing on. Sometimes in the midst of their play Aunt Jane would begin tolaugh softly, run to the little desk, write something quickly down andcome back laughing. Sometimes she would call Aunt Cassy and read her something she had just put on paper; every now and then she would haveto stop to let Aunt Cassy laugh and the two would laugh together. The sisters explained that Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy were a secret noone but the family so much as guessed.

Years later, just about everyone who read English had heard about the book: Pride and Prejudice.

This outstanding biography of a well-beloved novelist catches the spirit of Jane Austen herself. May Lamberton Becker enjoyably introduces us to the 18^th and early 19^thcentury world Miss Austen lived in—her family, her friends, her variedsettings and her many keen interests—as we are given insight to the personal background of all the Austen novels. Enlivening her narrative with many quotations from Jane Austen’s own correspondence, Miss Beckerputs her own enthusiastic appreciation of one of the world’s mostdelightful writers at our disposal.

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