"In an early scene in Kate Evans' Patchwork: A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen, she depicts 3-month-old, bundled-up baby Jane being smuggled out through the back door of her family's large home. The man who takes the baby is John Littleworth, a local tenant farmer, whose wife, Elizabeth, will care for the infant in their modest cottage for a small fee until Jane, at 2 years old, is returned."
"But by warping this historical detail, Evans intended to emphasize the central role that such a "vibrant and attractive" presence would have had on the Austen children; she wanted, in other words, to lead readers into a richer appreciation of Austen's relationship with her mother and, in turn, the world-famous novelist's complicated views on motherhood, mother-daughter relationships and class divisions."
A scene depicts three-month-old Jane being smuggled through a back door, taken to a tenant farmer's cottage where his wife Elizabeth cares for the infant until age two. The visual depiction of Lizzy Littleworth is intentionally youthful to underscore a vibrant maternal presence that influenced the Austen children and shaped complex views on motherhood and class. Bright illustrations pair with bounteous text to assemble a patchwork of clips and snippets drawn from biographies, academic studies, Austen's novels, poems and letters. Selective factual liberties are employed to deepen emotional truth and to offer readers richer companionship with Jane Austen's life and works.
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