A crash-course in Jane Austen, particularly suitable for those who have some familiarity with the period and love the books. Lane summarizes the trends in food, fashion, architecture, vacationing, leisure activities, poetry, prose, and politics of Jane Austen's lifetime. She walks us through what is known about Austen's life, what the sources are, and the probable biases/blinders of those sources. I found it a valuable resource, very useful for clearing up misunderstandings or areas of ignorance on my part. My only criticisms are that I found it a bit truncated (I would have loved far more detail) and that there were rather too many photos from recent film adaptations of Austen's films.
