"Part biography and part cultural history, this celebrated book not only tells the captivating story of Jane Austen's life as a writer, but also her literary legacy. Award-winning biographer Claire Harman traces the growth of Jane Austen's fame and the changing status of her work, a story of personal struggle, family intrigue, accident, advocacy and sometimes surprising neglect. A landmark study that doesn't just tell a fascinating story, but is essential reading for anyone interested in Austen's life, works and remarkably potent fame.
***Available now as an audiobook to celebrate Jane Austen's 250th anniversary***
“Wonderful.. not only scholarly but indecently entertaining… her prose rings with good sense, affection and humour”
Sam Leith, Daily Mail
“Splendid… Harman is the first to treat this fascinating subject in an accessible, lively manner unshackled by academic jargon”
Paula Byrne, Sunday Telegraph
“A fascinating compendium of absolutely everything relating to Austen…extraordinary”
Elspeth Barker, Independent On Sunday
“A book that no Austen addict will want to resist”
Mark Bostridge, Literary Review"
"A bookish puzzle threatens an eagerly awaited inheritance; a submission to a publisher recounts a murder that seems increasingly to be a work of non-fiction; an irate novelist puts a grisly end to the source of his writer's block. There is no better hiding place for clues - or red herrings - than inside the pages of a book. With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of tales perfect for every book lover and armchair sleuth, featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives such as Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent and Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But readers should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets. . ."
"Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Murder by the Book by Claire Harman, read by Andy Secombe.
Early in the morning of 6 May 1840, on an ultra-respectable Mayfair street, a footman answered the door to a panic-stricken maid from a nearby house. Her elderly master, Lord William Russell, was lying in bed with his throat cut so deeply that the head was almost severed.
The whole of London, from monarch to street urchins, was gripped by the gory details of the Russell murder, but behind it was another story, a work of fiction, and a fierce debate about censorship and morality. Several of the key literary figures of the day, including Dickens and Thackeray, were drawn into the controversy, and when Lord William's murderer claimed to having been inspired by the season's most sensational novel, it seemed that a great deal more was on trial than anyone could have guessed.
Bringing together much previously unpublished material from a wide range of sources, Claire Harman reveals the story of the notorious Russell murder case and its fascinating connections with the writers and literary culture of the day. Gripping and eye-opening, Murder by the Book is the untold true story of a surprisingly literary crime."
"Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Charlotte Brontë: A Life written and read by Claire Harman.
Raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors, watching five beloved siblings sicken and die, haunted by unrequited love: Charlotte Brontë's life has all the drama and tragedy of the great Gothic novels it inspired.
Charlotte was a literary visionary, a feminist trailblazer and the driving force behind the whole Brontë family. She pushed Emily to publish Wuthering Heights and took charge of their precarious finances when her feckless brother turned to opium. In Jane Eyre she introduced the world to a brand new kind of heroine, modelled on herself: quiet but fiercely intelligent, burning with passion and potential.
This is the definitive biography of one of Britain's best loved writers."
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