Jane Austen at Home

 Lucy Worsley admits to being a Janite, so her biography of Austen is written from a fan's perspective. Worsley is also from the "warts and all" school of historians, so she's not afraid to delve into the family feuds and societal divisions that made up Jane's family. Quiet, observant, acid-penned Jane then crafted her narrow worlds into six near perfect novels.

The Austens were near-gentry; her clergyman father associated with those above him socially but her mother had to be hands on in the garden and dairy. Children were not seen as sentimentally as a generation or two later and all eight siblings were sent out for a few years and her disabled brother (he most likely had epilepsy) never returned.

Jane also grew up in a world of extended families with great differences in wealth and status. Her mother's brother married up, but never shared his wealth (as the Gardiners appear to, or were expected to by Mrs. Bennett) thanks to a parsimonious wife scandalously accused of shoplifting. One of Jane's brothers, Edward, was adopted by childless relations and settled in as a lord of the manor. Two brothers made their fortune (like Admiral Croft, Captain Wentworth, and William Price) in the Royal Navy, and James Austen succeeded his father s rector of Stevenson. Then there was Henry, who both rose and fell as a private banker who eventually went bankrupt. Married to his cousin Eliza, the scandalous widow of a French nobleman and the illegitimate daughter of Mr. Austen's sister Philadelphia, he was Jane's literary agent and supporter but also a bit of schemer and a partial model for Henry Crawford. As unmarried women, Jane's and Cassandra's fates rose and fell with those of their brothers, depending on Edward's grace and favor lodge (in unofficial exchange for child care) after their father had died.

What about her writing? Worsley disagrees with the theory the Jane only wrote when she had a "home" in Stevenson and Chwton. While she wrote the first drafts of three novels before her father gave up Stevenson and three after being published in 1811, it's likely that she was revising and rewriting the manuscripts that would become Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice while moving among rental lodgings in Bath and Southampton. We don't realize that because of class and era. Jane was a Georgian, product of an era where woman's work was necessary. Her first biographers were her brother Edward's wealthy and Victorain descendants who felt that seeing Dear Aunt Jane as a professional would be insulting.

Worsley also explores Jane's romantic life. She had one known thwarted romance and turned down one proposal. Jane Austen at Home mentions another potential suitor, an associate of Henry Austen's who never got up the nerve to ask, and a few unnamed men with whom she danced and flirted. In the end, Jane chose a career and a life among women, living with her mother and sister and with sisters by choice like Martha Lloyd (who lived with the Austen women as sort of a regency Golden Girls) and the Biggs sisters (one widowed, one thrown out by her brother, Jane's almost-fiance). Creativity or childbirths -one of the few women able to make that choice. To be honest, it probably wasn't entirely hers because she was dowry less in an era with a war-created shortage of eligible men. But unlike Marianne Dashwood and (at least in my opinion) Emma Woodhouse, she never had to settle.

If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home

If Walls Could Talk is ostensibly the book of the series, and I expected it to be essentially the script to Lucy Worsley's TV series of the same name. Instead, Worsley uses the framework of the show to peek into the lives of ordinary people. The bedroom isn't just for sleep but also for sex (and childbirth, breastfeeding, and STDs), praying, and death. The bathroom leads to discussions of hygiene in general, plus makeup and plumbing. The living room is where we relax but also have to deal with housework (and formerly servants). Finally, the kitchen gives her a reason to discuss food fads and alcohol, as well as the political implications of menu choices. If I weren't working from home, this would be the perfect commute book - interesting but in short bites so I wouldn't get so engrossed I risk missing my stop.

Lady Mary

 I've enjoyed the first two YA historical novels I've read from Lucy Worsley, so Lady Mary was a bit of a letdown. Using a real and well known person rather than a witness to history, Worsley is constrained by the facts of Mary Tudor's adolescence. Watching her parents marriage dissolve and spending years in increasingly desperate isolation just isn't as dramatic as being companion to a volatile Princess Victoria or seeing your friend Catherine become Henry VIII's fifth wife. Like all of Worsley's books it's entertaining, but nothing special. 

Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow

 Lucy Worsley described the elderly Queen Victoria as a black-clad potato and wonders why she became fascinated with the stodgy icon. Worsley takes 24 days (or, rather, 24 events surrounding specific days) in Victoria's life to flesh out a woman who's often portrayed as a caricature or, conversely, a flat character. Victoria wasn't particularly deep and her upbringing in The System (although not quite as harsh as previously believed) didn't prepare her particularly well to rule a country or lead any semblance of a  normal life yet she led Great Britain for 63 years and created the idea of a Royal Family. 

Although not academic or (probably) particularly intelligent, Victoria was quite media savvy. She knew that her predecessors messy personal lives as well as the revolutionary tendencies of the 19th Century had put her position at risk. Her wedding was a spectacularly successful PR event and the uniform of her widowhood made her a recognizable symbol around whom the country could rally. The deep domesticity she and Albert projected both created and followed the evolving fashion of the rising middle class (although I found myself angry at Albert for using Victoria's repeated pregnancy confinements and ensuing bouts of post-natal depression to make himself more important to the running of the country).  The most interesting chapters, though, involved her meetings with individuals. She admired Florence Nightengale who in turn was disappointed by the rather passive monarch, and Worsley devotes a chapter each to John Brown and Abdul Karim. The day that will stay with me, though, is 21-24 August, 1854, which chronicles the visit of the deposed 15-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh. A boy himself, he's treated as a bit of a pet to the Queen and shown the Koh-i-Noor diamond, once his and now cut and polished to European tastes. 

My Name Is Victoria

 Princess Alexandrina Victoria spent her first 18 years trapped in the System. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent devised the plan along with Sir John Conroy. Keep the heir from the public, ostensibly for her safety; strictly control her few contacts; read her diary; and never allow her to be alone. Among the few strictly vetted people she was allowed to know was Victoria Conroy, and the future queen's diary does not snow any affection towards "Miss V." But...what if that was a ruse, that the two Victorias were actually close friends? Lucy Worsley creates an alternate history, in which the volatile royal Victoria sees her friend as an ally rather than a spy, and the advisor's daughter walks a fine line between protecting the princess and giving her father just enough information to keep her position. As with her other YA novel, Maid in the King's Court, Worsley introduces romance, this time with the Saxe-Colburg brothers. We know how that really  ended, but Worsley has a plot twist to keep it interesting (and possibly...no, that would be a spoiler).

A Very British Murder

I've spent my Corona lockdown two ways - playing trivia games and watching history documentaries on YouTube, several of them presented by Lucy Worley. One I haven't watched (yet) is A Very British Murder, which I thought was going to focus on our affection for fictional murders. While she does cover the Golden Age British writers and the pulp novelist who cast a more jaded eye on my favorite genre, most of the book discusses our interest in true crime. Since novel writing isn't very cinematic, I should have expected this, and while I enjoyed the book, I suspect that the series is better.

Maid in the King's court

I'm a bit late jumping on the YA bandwagon, mostly becasue recent YA novels tend towards fantasy or supernatural stories. Those don't interest me, but historical novels written by Lucy Worsley? You can't find a sub-sub-genre more targeted to my taste. Eliza Rose Camperdown, the only child of the Baron of Stone is a strong-willed, active child with little promise of becoming the cultured lady who able to find a proper (and properly wealthy) husband who can save the family estate. At age 12, she's sent to Trumpton Hall for finishing where she meets her distant cousin, Catherine Howard. Both girls find places at court as maids to Anne of Cleves, and as Catherine takes Anne's place, Eliza Rose finds herself serving her former friend. After Catherine's execution, she faces a dilemma - should she keep her place at court despite the danger, or should she make a new life with Ned, a page whose prospects are limited by his illegitimacy? Worsley's prose is light and enjoyable and she portrays Eliza Rose, Ned - and Catherine - as sympathetic characters trapped by a stifling and occasionally brutal system.

Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court

I'm familiar with the Tudors and Stuarts, and with George III and the 19th and 20th Century English monarchs.  The first two Geroges have been placeholders in my mind.  They came to the throne by political accident, German Protestant cousins of the childless Queen Anne, plucked from obscurity to lead a major power.  Lucy Worsley describes court life under George I and II, when the monarchy was transitioning to an almost purely ceremonial position and when appearance mattered.  Chronicling the public (and nearly nonexistent private) lives of ladies-in-waiting, artists, writers, and a pet "wild boy" as well as those of the Kings and Queen Caroline, Courtiers provides an introduction to an era.