JANE AUSTEN'S INSPIRATION: Beloved Friend Anne Lefroy

An insightful biography on the life of a writer who had direct and undeniable influence on the life and works of Jane Austen who was her confidante and an immense source of inspiration as Jane developed her own talents. Before her marriage, Anne had produced a portfolio of verse. While fulfilling all her duties as the Rector's wife of Ashe, Hampshire, Anne continued to write even as Jane Austen was working on her precocious juvenilia at neighbouring Steventon. The Austens and the Lefroys were close friends and allies in the local community. Anne was also the aunt of Tom Lefroy. Jane and Tom shared a loving friendship that some believed might translate into marriage, but that was not to be and Jane remained unmarried for the rest of her life. It was the experience which Jane may eventually have transformed into the background of her most emotional novel, Persuasion. Anne died in a riding accident on the 16th December 1804, on Jane's 29th birthday. Anne was in her mid 50s. Four years on, Jane wrote a lament for Anne's medium of verse, an outpouring of emotion which has no parallel in either her novels or her surviving letters. It was Jane Austen as we have never seen her in a bold appropriation of masculine literary modes. The biographer publishes for the first time in one place since 1812 texts of most of Anne Lefroy's known poems as she brings a wealth of insight to this illuminating history of a literary friendship. The book also addresses developments across a period of great social and political change and sets Lefroy's life in context. She looks at the war against Napoleon and illustrates evolutions in health care as well as changes in religious beliefs and practices that impacted on the lives of the Austens, the Lefroys and their circle. Much speculation for diehard fans. 263pp.