Dies ist ein frischer Einblick in ein Stück Zeitgeschichte einer großartigen Autorin, die ihrer Zeit weit voraus gewesen ist. Lesenswert.

This seemed well researched and well written, but I didn't find it as interesting as I hoped. In general it was a great concept for a book, but I wasn't sure on what the point was and I found myself becoming disinterested.

I'm not a massive Jane Austen fan but I remember hearing about Anne Lefroy in connection with her at some point so I was interested to find out more about the relationship. While I appreciate it's hard to write a book when there isn't much information in the public domain, but the content wasn't very engrossing and there wasn't any particular event or "hook" really, to draw the reader in. Maybe a good one for Jane Austen enthusiasts.

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This is a new biography of Anne Lefroy, which Judy Stove investigates the life of a writer who had a direct and undeniable influence on the life and works of Jane Austen.

Jane had a very devoted friend in Anne Lefroy, and they shared a wonderful friendship that was essential in both their lives and their creative talents in their writing styles.

Judy Stove, a member of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, put forth her insight to this story of the history of a literary friendship. She has uncovered fascinating snippets of information relating to Anne Lefroy's circle, and her book addresses developments across a period of great social and political change. Setting Lefroy's life in context, she looks at the war against Napoleon and illustrates evolutions in healthcare as well as changes in religious beliefs and practices that impacted upon the lives of Lefroy and her circle.

I did find this book to be slow read, but a delightful read. Judith has a lovely writing style and was a perfect fit in writing this story. Highly recommended to any Jane Austen fans.

Marketed on the premise of Anne Lefroy being a close friend to Jane Austen, I anticipated the focus to be on their friendship and it’s historical setting. However, the link between the two is tenuous: a few mentions of one another in each other’s letters and a poem written by Jane long after Lefroy’s death. Settling into it being a biography of Anne, I became weary of the long excepts of supporting research material following nearly every statement. It thoroughly disrupts the narrative. By 25%, as the author tracks the Huguenot origins of Lefroy’s father’s family, I abandoned ship, it’s just not my cup of tea. The research is certainly thorough and there are several interesting historical facts. If an academic and well-evidenced account of this timeframe appeals, this may be for you.

The author's painstaking research and attention to detail is obvious in the writing of this book. There were many facts that I only discovered after reading this!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was quite interesting, but I found the writing to be a tad clunky. Anne Lefroy tends not to get a lot of attention in Austen studies, so it was lovely to learn more about her and her relationship with Jane. I'm not convinced she was a major inspiration for Austen but I did enjoy learning more. The research is thorough and solid, though not for the uninitiated Austenite.

In terms of writing, it is rather on the slow side. The author also continually uses scholars' full names throughout the book, instead of abbreviating to last name after first use- it slows it down and makes the text feel heavier.

I certainly can’t fault the research that has gone into this book, but my goodness, it was dull. It’s the first biography to have been written about Anne Lefroy, who, the author claims was a close friend of Jane Austen and a key influence on her – in fact an inspiration, as the title suggests. But there simply is no evidence for this. The two women hardly mention each other in surviving letters, and in fact Jane was nearer in age to Anne’s own children rather to Anne herself. To support her argument, Stove explores at some length a long in memoriam poem Jane Austen wrote after Anne’s death, but this is shaky evidence at best. As there is very little known about Anne Lefroy, much of the book is guesswork and speculation, and to make a whole book out of such scant information Stoke has delved back into previous generations of the Lefroy family (dull) and pads out the narrative with social, political and religious issues (interesting up to a point but also quite dull) and describes the Lefroys’ social circle (not relevant to Jane Austen’s life). I feel really bad knocking this book as so much work has gone into it, and it’s definitely a worthy endeavour. And those die-hard fans who treasure every snippet and every crumb about JA will probably find it of some interest. But personally I found it a bit of a trudge, and I skipped great chunks of it. Nor did I feel it illuminated JA’s life and work for me in any meaningful way. One for the scholars out there, perhaps, but probably not for the general reader.

Jane Austen's Inspiration: Beloved Friend Anne Lefroy by Judith Stove is a deeply researched look into Jane Austen's dear friend Anne Bridges Lefroy (1747-1804).

Anne was an interesting and intelligent woman, a clergyman's wife and a writer, a mother and a promotor of smallpox vaccination. Anne's husband's nephew was Tom Lefroy, notorious for Jane Austen's mentions of their"profligate and shocking" behavior of "dancing and sitting down together." Their flirtation came to an end with Jane writing, "My tears flow as I write."

We don't really know what occurred between Tom and Jane, but Ben Lefroy's wife Anna Austen wrote that Tom's mother Anne disliked him for "he had behaved so ill to Jane Austen." Was Jane's heart wounded? Were the pair separated by Anne Lefroy, as in the story of Persuasion? Yet at her death, Jane wrote a heartfelt poem for Anne Lefroy.

Stover combs through first sources for clues to their relationship--including Austen's letters and Anne Lefroy's letters--in the first chapter, The Austen Connection. In part two, Anne Before Jane, she covers Anne's family history. Part three, Through a Glass Darkly, considers Anne's life and family and the events and society of her time. Your Angel Mother tells of Anne's death, Jane's memorial poem, and concludes the stories of her children. The book includes illustrations.

I do not recommend this book for the casual Austen reader. This is not a narrow focus on the relationship between two women. The scholarship is detailed and broad, offering an understanding of Anne's heritage and times.

I received access to a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased revie

I was so excited to get to read this book but it sadly missed the mark. The author did so a lot of research and it was well written.

BEAUTIFULLY RESEARCHED, BUT, SADLY, MISSES THE MARK

Actual rating: 2.5⭐️

At first I was very excited about this book, to know more about one of the women who, supposedly, served as an inspiration to Jane Austen. However, while the book was very well researched, it really wasn't about Anne Lefroy... Honestly, she felt more like a supporting character than the main character.

"It may be that Jane was the Marianne of the pair, bemoaning the loss of her one-time lover, and Cassandra the Elinor, suffering in silence over the permanent loss of hers."

THE THINGS I LIKED

Analogies: Stove draws some very interesting analogies between Austen's writing and her life, such as the one in the quote above.

Research: There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Stove has spent incredible amounts of times researching for this book and gathering all of her impressive information.

THE THINGS I DISLIKED

Backwards: The book opens up with Anne's death and her relationship with the Austen's. It could have worked if it weren't for all of the names, that were thrown in there but not explained because that explanation came later on.

Not enough: Like I said, Anne really is only a supporting character in this book. It seemed glaringly obvious to me, that there simply is not enough knowledge of her life to merit an entire biographical book. Honestly, this book is more a story of the county, where Austen grew up and lived.

Inspiration?: This book is called "Jane Austen's Inspiration" but honestly, I don't feel like Stove proved that. After reading this book, I don't know in what way Lefroy served as an inspiration for Austen...

A well-researched, informative book that will be a fine addition to the library of any Jane Austen fan, or even of history buffs in general.
The scarcity of source material does make the subject difficult to research and to actually prove the affection and longtime friendship between Anne Lefroy and Jane Austen. The most important indication of their connection is provided by Jane Austen’s poem/eulogy mourning Anne, though written several years after the other woman’s passing. They hardly mention each other in letters or journals and when they do it’s not with any particular warmth. Anne Lefroy might very well have been an inspiration to Jane Austen as the title suggest, but unfortunately, this stays mostly conjecture as there simply isn’t enough factual evidence to truly attest to this interesting theory.
To me the worth of this book is therefore not so much the connection to Jane Austen, but Anne Lefroy herself, her life and times because the author offers us a lot of historical background and interesting insights and tidbits about life in the 18th and early 19th century as well as into Anne’s character and family life.
It takes a while to get there though, because for almost the entire first half of the book the author leads the reader to faraway times and people that are hardly relevant to the actual subject of this biography. Again, her musings and insights are valuable, but perhaps not entirely in their proper place in this specific book.

Jane Austen’s Inspiration is about Anne Lefroy, an author and close friend of Jane Austen. I had never heard of her so I thought this would be an interesting topic. The author states that she saw a lack of information regarding Anne and decided to tell her story. I’m guessing she couldn’t find much more information. The book was slow and rather dry with multiple chapters of genealogies and family stories from centuries before that had nothing to do with Anne and Jane’s relationship, or even Anne herself. One story told was the strange life of an antiquarian collector in her family. I was confused why his story was even told. You can tell she did massive amounts of research but it just didn’t coincide with the idea behind the book. I will give credit, where credit is due though, the first chapter was brilliant. It highlighted a lot of Jane Austen’s correspondence which was a delight to read. But after that, it never came back. At about 75% through I just couldn’t finish it. But, if you enjoy a lot of genealogy and random family stories, this might just be the book for you.