March 14, 2026 By Maria
Last Sunday a friend texted me a happy international women’s day message. That made me think, this is the perfect week to post this Jane Austen piece I have been working on.
In typical fashion of this blog, my Jane Austen post is late, later than I planned at least. Originally, I wanted to post this on her 250th birthday anniversary, but life had other plans. Over the spring and summer of last year and especially this past December, people around the world have been celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th birthday anniversary. On December 16, 1775, Jane Austen was born. She was the youngest child and second daughter in the family of a countryside English clergyman. Jane grew up in a time of many restrictions on women, but in spite of her times she had a thorough education and became an accomplished author.
In August, my husband and I traveled to New York City with a friend to visit the Morgan Library to see their Jane Austen display in honor of the author’s birthday anniversary. The Morgan Library is now a public museum, but it was once the private library of J. P. Morgan, one of New York City’s Gilded Age Elite. Years ago, I listened to a historical fiction novel, The Personal Library, about the life and work of Belle De Costa Greene, an African American woman who procured and managed Morgan’s library collection. It was spectacular seeing the architecture, art and books I had heard described in such detail in the novel. Our first visit to the Morgan Library was to see the Beatrix Potter show in 2024 (that was also an amazing experience).
I thoroughly enjoyed my second trip to the library. People of course were talking as they wove their way through the one room installment of the Jane Austen show. However, there was a hushed reverence in the air that felt palpable. It was a wonderful experience seeing Jane Austen’s writing desk and personal letters. One item that made me smile was seeing the Austen family book of poetry. It contained poetry written by generations in the family. On the top of the page opened in the case was the line, “The Poetry of my ancestors I see collected here. How I wish my ancestors’ writing was more clear. Oxford 11/7/1886.” I learned many new facts about Austen I did not know before the visit like her love of music.
There was of course emphasis on her close relationship with her sister, Cassandra. My husband said that reading Cassandra’s letter after Jane’s death was heartbreaking. My friend commented that she couldn’t imagine having to wait weeks for a letter to arrive to communicate with her sister, as Jane and Cassandra had to do at times of separation during their lives.
The trip was a very special Jane Austen experience. I especially loved seeing her writing desk and imagining her working on her book at that table. The trip made me think about her books again and why I love and appreciate them. I look forward to when I can share Jane Austen’s works with my kids, especially my daughter. For now I share Jane Austen picture books with them and one special Jane Austen novella I own.
Did you know that as a teenager Jane Austen wrote a novella about a silly and naughty girl named after her older sister, Cassandra? I didn’t either until a friend sent it to me one birthday. It was especially fun to read because as my friend knew, my daughter has a literary/Jane Austen inspired name. The copy I have of The Beautifull Cassandra is illustrated with ink paintings. The simple silhouettes still convey the ridiculousness of the story and the characters’ behavior. It was also fun to have a Jane Austen book I could share with my daughter.
That actually wasn’t my daughter’s first introduction to Jane Austen. When she was a baby, this same friend sent Little Miss Austen: Pride and Prejudice by Jennifer Adams and illustrated by Alison Oliver. It was a counting board book that we read over and over when she was tiny. There is actually a series of these Jane Austen board books. They are perfect for the littlest Austen fans.
Since my kids are too young to really read or appreciate Jane Austen’s wonderful novels, I read them books about the author herself. We had a family deep dive into Jane Austen over the winter. The first book we read was Jane: My First Jane Austen by Sanchez Vegara Isabe. This book focuses on how Jane had an unusual life and education for a woman at that time and tells a simplified version of Jane’s story which is perfect for young ones. My daughter definitely appreciated learning that Jane was the youngest in her family and that Jane had older brothers, just like she does.
I feel it’s important to teach my kids, especially my daughter, about women from history like Jane Austen – women who stood out and did something different and started paving the way for the modern day woman. My daughter was indignant and shocked to learn that Austen’s first published books did not have her name listed, but instead only said “By a Lady.” They were so surprised that this was normal back then.
My youngest two enjoyed A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice by Jasmine A. Stirling and illustrated by Vesper Stamper. This book introduces literary trends during Jane Austen’s life and how she found those styles of books ridiculous. They were overly dramatic, sappy or filled with fainting women. My kids found this amusing. This book shows Jane’s sadness at the death of her father, and it focuses on her journey to find her written voice. It also shared how she had a gap in her writing, likely due to her grieving and moving. I love how the end of this book talks about Jane deciding to write again after so much sadness and how that sadness brought wisdom to her writing. It gives a message of resilience and hope and shows in a subtle way how her writing had also matured through life experience. As readers we don’t always think about how an author’s life shapes their writing and I appreciated how this book made me think and consider those things.
Another book that made me consider more about Jane’s life was The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography written by Janine Barchas and illustrated by Isabel Greenberg. My kids read graphic novels all the time. They didn’t try to read this one. I did try to get them interested, but they preferred having me read the Austen picture book biographies to them instead. I don’t usually read graphic novels, however, I saw an article about how it was newly published, and I thought it might be a fun way to get biographical information on Jane Austen. This graphic novel is broken into sections or rather different time periods of her life. It was a more detailed telling of her life than what we read in the picture books. I found it interesting how the book shared little side facts about the time period. For example, it was a common practice to rent piano fortes and a volcano erupted towards the end of Jane’s life that affected the weather for the rest of her years. The graphic novel was a fun way to learn Austen’s biography.
Our very favorite Jane Austen picture book biography was Ordinary, Extraordinary: Jane Austen by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by Qin Leng. We loved the illustrations! (Qin Leng is the same artist who did the pictures in A Day for Sand Castles, written about in one of my August 2025 blogs). This book begins with a stronger focus on Jane Austen’s relationship with her father and how he shared his library with Jane and her siblings.
In this book we learned that Austen started to scribble her observations in the margins of books she read. I love the illustration of young Jane in a window seat on the stairway with books strewn all about her in piles. We learned that she wanted her writing to reflect real life. She wrote about the ordinary world in a most extraordinary way. There is a timeline at the end of the book with a list of her novels including blurbs and famous quotes. My younger son really liked going through this part and asked me to read all the blurbs and quotes out loud. Afterwards he asked if there was a movie about Northanger Abbey that he could watch. It was a cute moment and fun to share Austen’s stories with my kids.
I enjoyed my personal deep dive into Jane Austen this past year, but I also absolutely loved sharing my love of Jane and her novels with my kids and friends. It was especially fun to read and watch videos about how the world was celebrating Jane this past year. Lego even made a special Jane Austen Lego set in honor of her birthday anniversary. There were special museum exhibits, parties, books published and even reenactment parties. I wonder what young Jane Austen would think to see people all over the world celebrating her birthday. Happy birthday, Miss Austen!
More Bookshelves Please 