Ms. Veevers has written a scholarly but enjoyable book comparing and contrasting the lives of Jane Austen (12/16/1775 to 7/18/1817) and Dorothy Wordsworth (12/25/1771 to 1/25/1855) and describing the circumstances under which girls and women lived in the late 18th/early 19th centuries in England. Ms. Veevers, who works for the Wordsworth Trust, shows that there were "several important parallels in their [these women's] lives: financial insecurity, a reliance on the support of brothers, a certain rebelliousness and, of course, literary talent" (p. xvi).

To obtain the greatest understanding of this biography, one should be very familiar with Jane Austen's novels since Ms. Veevers often refers to their themes or incidents in them when demonstrating how Jane or Dorothy fit into English society. One of the difficulties with the book is its stress on sensibility without specifically defining what that word meant in that time period. Also, the book skips back and forth between the lives of these two women; sometimes it is hard to tell when the situations are occurring.

The endnotes are especially valuably since they contain additional text. The bibliography is divided into two sections: one for Dorothy Wordsworth and one for Jane Austen. Family trees of the Austens and Wordsworths would have been extremely useful.

Highly recommended for Austen and Wordsworth scholars; recommended for general readers. ( )