Patchwork
A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen
Patchwork is Kate Evans’s fascinating graphic biography of Jane Austen.
Despite the magnitude of her legacy, the book notes, historical records related to Jane Austen’s life are sparse. Using Austen’s own words from novels, letters, and poems, it forms a narrative about her life, detailing her relationships with her family members, friends, and suitors. It covers her passion for writing and her struggles with money and her health too.
Austen’s novels are discussed, as are their possible inspirations. Revelatory scenes show the influences of Jane’s experiences on her later writings about money and marriage. A patchwork coverlet Austen made with her family members serves as a metaphor for the book itself: a single, impressive whole created by stitching together a bevy of individual pieces.
A work of extraordinary depth, the text includes thorough context about the East India Company and the unequal traditions of inheritance that led Jane to comment in a letter, “The whole world is in a conspiracy to enrich one part of our family at the expense of another.” The notes are extensive and illuminating, detailing the sources and speculations behind each page. One note explains why a woman traveling alone was a rarity; another analyzes Austen’s attitude toward slavery; a third contains an explanation of why Austen may have chosen to keep her authorship hidden from the public. The art is charming, with expressive characterizations and period-accurate renderings of clothing, carriages, and architecture.
Patchwork is an inventive graphic biography of Jane Austen, putting her works into personal context.
Reviewed by
Peter Dabbene
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
