This book includes an introduction by J.H. Stape, St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill. Enormously influential on all later biographies of Jane Austen, the Memoir of Jane Austen (1869) by her nephew James Edward Austen - Leigh enjoys the privileged perspective of first-hand knowledge. It displays the deft touch of a man trained in the compassionate observation of human fallibility and virtue. Austen-Leigh's highly readable and affectionate account of his aunt offers a vividly compelling portrait of Jane Austen's habits and personality. Accompanied by the novella Lady Susan and the unfinished The Watsons , this edition is simply essential reading for any admirer of a writer whom Virginia Woolf called 'the most perfect artist among women'.