Jon Spence's fascinating biography paints an intimate portrait of Jane Austen. "Becoming Jane Austen" gives the fullest account we have of her falling in love with the charming young Irishman Tom Lefroy, a relationship that was more serious and enduring than previously believed and one that had a profound effect upon her life and her art. The elegant narrative examines Austen's other emotional attachments, building a picture of her world as she herself perceived and experienced it. It is a world familiar to us from her novels, but in "Becoming Jane Austen", Jane herself is the heroine.