We heard from Sarah S.G. Frantz, who has written a foreword for a reprint of Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters by William and Richard Austen-Leigh, just published by Barnes & Noble Books. This is one of the first biographies of Jane Austen and was written using the letters and other papers collected by the Austen family. Austen scholar Deirdre Le Faye later expanded the book into Jane Austen: A Family Record (the most useful book in the Editrix’s Austen library), but this is the original. Read Dr. Frantz’s foreword online. The book should be available in all Barnes & Noble stores.

Dr. Frantz, an assistant professor of English at Fayetteville State University, also wrote a foreword for the Barnes & Noble edition of Love and Freindship and Other Early Works.

A brand new book, though perhaps covering familiar ground, is Jane Austen in Bath by Katharine Reeve, which will be published next month but is available for preorder on Amazon. From the description:

Jane Austen in Bath: Walking Tours of the Writer’s City is a beautifully illustrated book organized into four walking tours around the city of Bath–where she set both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion–two novels that mirrored her own experience: that of an impressionable, optimistic young girl hoping to meet the man she would marry and later, that of a mature woman disappointed in love. It was in Bath that many of Austen’s own romantic adventures and misadventures occurred, and this book artfully weaves together the story of Austen’s life there with those of her beloved characters.

This guidebook describes the places frequented by Austen and her characters. Readers can stroll along the shady, tree-lined walk where Anne Elliot met Captain Wentworth after he returned from seven years at sea, and visit the galleries that hosted the glittering balls where the impressionable young Catherine Moreland (sic) made her debut.

Bath is an exquisite, perfectly preserved Georgian town located in the stunning countryside just an hour and a half from London. It was a spa town in Austen’s day and still is. The streets, crescents, gardens, and buildings look almost exactly the same as they did then. Many of the places that she frequented are still there–visitors can still buy the traditional Sally Lunn rolls at the same bakery/café that Austen frequented; enter the famous Pump Rooms and Assembly Rooms where she drank the waters, gossiped, and danced; stroll the unique Georgian crescents and pleasure gardens where she enjoyed fireworks and lavish public breakfasts; and see the homes Austen and her family lived in, some of which are now open to the public.

We love the idea of having the walking tours in Bath, though it’s hard to walk anywhere in Bath without seeing something that reminds us of Jane Austen. We still remember taking the general walking tour of Bath and looking up idly and seeing EDGAR’S BUILDINGS etched across a row of Georgian buildings and breaking into giggles. However, having them organized is certainly an excellent idea!

The book will be on sale a little earlier in the U.K., in time to purchase the book during the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, where the author will be the guide for one of the walks.

These are the four walks in the book, according to the publisher:

Walk One - Jane’s First Visits to the Georgian City of Bath

Walk Two - The Move to Bath: Sydney Gardens and the New Town

Walk Three - Writing Again: Bath’s Entertainments and the Lower Town

Walk Four - Shopping, Fashion, and Dancing: Bond Street and Milsom Street to Camden Crescent