Helen Amy – författare

The society in which Jane Austen lived and set her novels was a patriarchal one. Men ran the country nationally and locally, and had professional or business careers. Women were relegated to the subservient roles of wife, mother and housekeeper.What was it like to be a man in late Georgian and Regency England? How did Jane Austen, who lived in a predominantly male household, portray her male characters? How much inspiration did she draw from real men?This book explores the lives of the men in Jane’s life, her relationship with them, how typical they were of men of their time and the impact they had on her life and writing. It also shows, through an in-depth look at the male characters in the novels, how men and women related to each other in society and how men maintained their dominant position.

Jane and Cassandra Austen were the closest of sisters from early childhood. Cassandra was the most important person in Jane’s life; Jane looked up to and adored her older sister, who was devoted to her in return. As well as sharing the same education, interests, friends and Christian faith, the inseparable sisters supported each other through various emotional crises and family troubles. Most importantly, Cassandra, who was privy to Jane’s imaginary world, supported and encouraged her in her writing.The Austen Girls explores the lives of the Austen sisters and traces their relationship throughout Jane’s life and literary career, until Jane’s premature death at the age of forty-one. It also follows Cassandra’s life after the loss of her sister.

Jane Austen is one of England’s greatest and best-loved novelists, whose works are still widely read and enjoyed nearly two hundred years after her death. Memories of Jane were increasingly recorded as her reputation and fame grew in the nineteenth century.This is the life of Jane in the words of the people who knew her; it provides a fascinating insight into her life as a member of a close, loving family and her works as a novelist. The Jane Austen Files brings these memories, in the form of family diaries and memoirs by her nearest and dearest relatives, as well as all of Jane’s own letters, together in one volume. This book also opens a window on to the England in which Jane Austen lived, and lovingly set her novels.

Jane and Cassandra Austen were the closest of sisters from early childhood. Cassandra was the most important person in Jane’s life; Jane looked up to and adored her older sister, who was devoted to her in return. As well as sharing the same education, interests, friends and Christian faith, the inseparable sisters supported each other through various emotional crises and family troubles. Most importantly, Cassandra, who was privy to Jane’s imaginary world, supported and encouraged her in her writing.The Austen Girls explores the lives of the Austen sisters and traces their relationship throughout Jane’s life and literary career, until Jane’s premature death at the age of forty-one. It also looks at Cassandra’s life after the loss of her sister.‘I Jane Austen of the Parish of Chawton do … give and bequeath to my dearest Sister Cassandra Elizabeth every thing of which I may die possessed, or which may be hereafter due to me… I appoint my said dear Sister the Executrix of this my last Will & Testament.’ Jane Austen, 27 April 1817.The bequest included the manuscripts of Jane’s unpublished and unfinished novels.

Everyday Life in Victorian London explores the daily lives of adults and children, aristocracy and middle classes, working poor and the ‘submerged tenth’ underclass. It shows the different faces of London, with its many extremes and contrasts – by day and by night; busy and peaceful; ugly and beautiful; safe and dangerous. It looks at the River Thames and its importance; the City, West and East Ends; at work, leisure, health, hospitals, education, food, clothes, housing, shops and markets, transport and infrastructure, public services, crime, the police and prisons, immigrant communities, and important events such as the Great Exhibition of 1851 and Queen Victoria’s golden and diamond jubilees.Daily life in the capital will be explored at three levels – above ground (views from hot air balloons), at ground level, and below ground (the sewage system, the underground railway and cemeteries). A central theme is the rapid growth in population throughout the century due to immigration from the countryside and abroad, and the resulting expansion into ‘The Monster City’. The final chapter describes London at the end of the century with improved transport, a newly embanked Thames, a sewage system, housing for the poor, public buildings, hospitals and prisons – a transformed capital of a great empire and the embryo of the London we know today.