Jane Austen's life at Steventon Parsonage, her brief adventure at school and her real education at home, family theatricals in the barn with her cousin, the Countess from the Court of France, as leading lady—all these are in this "book for beginners" at any age; so are the dances and dresses of a pretty young lady moving in good society, and the excursions with her sister Cassandra; so are her "nameless, dateless" romance, the first lighthearted parody composed for fireside entertainment, the writing and re-writing of the novels that went round the world.

The plan of PRESENTING MISS JANE AUSTEN corresponds with that of Mrs. Becker's INTRODUCING CHARLES DICKENS, weaving this fascinating author's books into her biography, but the scene here is the "Age of Elegance" in which she lived, and the spirit is that of Jane Austen herself. This is life as she saw it, felt it and recorded it in six delightful, deathless novels and a multitude of intimate letters.

An ageless book.

Beatrice Warde writes from London:

"Presenting Miss Jane Austen beckons you toward the lifelong delights and excitements of knowing Miss J. Austen, and meeting the people in her novels. May Lamberton Becker has written your Invitation to these endless pleasures... I have had the privilege of watching her gather the source-material for Presenting Miss Jane Austen, and apply to it that same gift of understanding which made her Introducing Charles Dickens memorable. I have strolled with her down every lane that leads to Chawton or Steventon. How you will envy me that experience, long before you have finished this book! But you, too, are to be envied; for you will have that same companion, on a no less vivid journey, when you go with M.L.B. to meet the incomparable Jane Austen."

From the dust jacket