Book Review: The Spirituality of Jane Austen

The Spirituality of Jane Austen

by Paula Hollingsworth

Lion Hudson Plc

Lion Books

Biographies & Memoirs , Nonfiction (Adult)

Pub Date 24 Mar 2017

I am reviewing a copy of The Spirituality of Jane Austen through Lion Books and Netgalley:

In 2017, the 200Th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death was marked, and this book was released.

Paul Hollingsworth offers a celebration of Jane Austen’s strong but gentle faith and explores how that impacted both her life and her writings. The author reminds us too of the importance of being mindful of the way in which we apply the word spirituality to the way we refer to Jane Austen because it was not a term used in her day the way it is today. We are reminded too that in England in Jane Austen’s time there was only a small portion of Jews, and Muslims were people far away from England, to her the word religious would have met Christian, and it would have meant Protestant Christianity.

We are reminded too of the importance of family to Jane Austen, but there were differences too, an older brother who was disabled lived away from home, and where as Catherine went away to school at ten, Jane was only seven.