Template:POTD/2010-12-16

Picture of the day

The frontispiece to A Memoir of Jane Austen, a biography of the author Jane Austen (1775–1817), written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh and published 52 years after her death. Common to biographies written in the Victorian era, it did not attempt to unreservedly tell the story of the author's life, but instead kept much private information from the public. The Memoir generated popular interest in the works of Jane Austen, which only a literary elite had read up until that point. The art for the frontispiece took some liberties with the original painting, softening Austen's features in the Victorian style.Image: James Andrews, after Cassandra Austen
Restoration: Adam Cuerden/Staxringold