Bonnets, speech bubbles, ‘cheeky easter eggs’: A sophisticated graphic biography of Jane Austen

This year is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and she hasn’t aged a bit as the cultural touchstone of classy romance. Her Pride and Prejudice anti-hero, Mr Darcy, perennially pops up in his breeches in Instagram memes, while Regency feminist, Elizabeth Bennet, has been brought to life by a host of contemporary actors.

Along with new screen versions of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (starring Daisy Edgar-Jones) and a Netflix version of P&P, there have been adaptations of her classics, Persuasion, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park. And, there are numerous biographies and biopics, including a TV drama about Jane’s sister, Cassandra, who burned most of Jane’s letters.

Now, there is also a graphic biography: The Novel Life of Jane Austen, written by Janine Barchas and illustrated by Isabel Greenberg.

Together, they have co-created a storyboard for the domestic life that framed Austen’s writing, encompassing her closeness to both Cassandra and her brother Frank, who joined the navy and liked to sew.

Unlike a “cradle to grave” biography, Barchas begins with a teenage Jane in London, with Frank touring an exhibition about Shakespeare and his work. We then follow her, in illustrative comic boxes and speech bubbles, through her publishing rejections, her breakthrough debut Sense and Sensibility, and her rise to become one of most beloved writers in the canon of English literature.

The book ends beyond...

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