Just Jane - Nancy Moser

★★★★★★★★★★ (6/10)

I am an avid Jane Austen fan, and I am not afraid to admit it. I'm the type of person whose copy of Pride and Prejudice falls open to the most awkward, embarrassing, fantastic proposal scene in literary history.  So, naturally, I like to read about the author, and see how her life is different and similar to the lives of the characters in her novels. I thought Just Jane would be a good addition to my knowledge collection of the life of one of my favorite authors, and for the most part, it was.

Just Jane is written in a quasi-diary fashion, where everything is told from Jane's point of view, and each "event" only takes a day or so, or else, Jane is recapping what's been happening while she's talking about the current situation. I liked this format because it didn't include dates, so the novel just flowed from one event in Austen's life to another, just like it did in her real life.  As far as I can tell, the author, Moser, tried to be as factual as possible, while taking artistic license with conversational details, and I appreciate her honesty.  It's just a pity that so many of Austen's letters were burned after her death, or the world would know so much more about her, despite Austen's claim that she wanted to remain unknown.

What made Just Jane slightly difficult to read was the speed.  I felt like it just dragged on and on without going anywhere.  I could put down this book in the middle of a sentence and not feel bad about it.  Usually I try to finish a paragraph, if not a chapter, when I know I have to stop reading, but with this novel, I put it down because I wanted to stop reading.  I needed mental breaks to wake myself up and hope for the story to get to something more interesting, something more than just Jane's unhappiness that she's been separated from her sister again.  I understand that these occurrences would have been saddening for her, but I do wish that Moser could have kept them to a minimum for the novel's sake.

However, the content of the novel is wonderful.  Going in, I knew that Jane was very close to her only sister, Cassandra, but Moser was able to convey just how deep their relationship was, and how Cassandra and Jane practically were two halves of a whole.  There is a comment made that a man would have to marry them both to get a complete wife, and I think that's exactly how the two sisters would have seen it as well.  The relationships between Jane and her various family members are just as complicated as the relationship between the characters in her books. Jane Austen is not nearly so ashamed of her parents as Lizzy and Jane Bennet, but she does notice all her brothers' flaws, as well as feeling the pain of not being able to control her own life, since she must do as her father bids her. 

The things that seems most depressing is Jane's love life.  Her "romance" with Tom Lefroy doesn't seem nearly as involved as it does in the film "Becoming Jane." Yes, I know it's a film, and films are not known for their adherence to truth, but I thought that maybe there was a little truth in it.  From what Moser explains in her notes at the end of the novel, there was nothing serious between Jane and Tom.  She liked him, but she never truly expected to marry him when she thought about it.  Even sadder is that there was a budding romance between her and a young man after her family moved to Bath, but he was killed in an accident before the two young people even got a chance to know one another.  It seems as though Jane and Cassandra were destined to remain single; a force of nature couldn't get them married because, had they married, Jane would not have published her books, and Cassandra would not have been there to support and encourage her.  Sad or not, Jane's devotion to her sister, and her desire to not marry without love are the reasons the world has novels from Jane Austen's brilliant mind.

I couldn't believe how long it took me to read Just Jane, since I've read other histories of her (including this great little book called "101 Things You Didn't Know About Jane Austen" by Patrice Hannon), and I've never been quite as bored I as was reading Just Jane.  This is not to say that it was not a good book; I'm just warning you that it will take a while, and you should take frequent breaks for naps.