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Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
From one of our most accomplished and widely admired historians-a revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister, whose obscurity and poverty were matched only by her brother's fame and wealth but who, like him, was a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator.
It is a life that has never been examined before: that of the sister of one of the most remarkable men of their time, living unknown to the world at large, but a constant presence and influence in her brother's life through their correspondence (he wrote more letters to her than to anyone else). Making use of an astonishing cache of little-studied material, including documents, objects, and portraits only just discovered, Jill Lepore brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only this one extraordinary woman but an entire world. Lepore's life of Jane Franklin, with its strikingly original vantage on Benjamin Franklin, is at once a wholly different account of the founding and one of the great untold stories of American history and letters.
It is a life that has never been examined before: that of the sister of one of the most remarkable men of their time, living unknown to the world at large, but a constant presence and influence in her brother's life through their correspondence (he wrote more letters to her than to anyone else). Making use of an astonishing cache of little-studied material, including documents, objects, and portraits only just discovered, Jill Lepore brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only this one extraordinary woman but an entire world. Lepore's life of Jane Franklin, with its strikingly original vantage on Benjamin Franklin, is at once a wholly different account of the founding and one of the great untold stories of American history and letters.
464 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
About the author
Jill Lepore
40 books1,269 followersJill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History, Harvard College Professor, and chair of Harvard's History and Literature Program. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker.
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award for the best non-fiction book on race, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; The Name of War (Knopf, 1998), winner of the Bancroft Prize, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, and the Berkshire Prize and a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Award.
A co-founder of the magazine Common-place, Lepore’s essays and reviews have also appeared in the New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, American Scholar, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, The Daily Beast, the Journal of American History and American Quarterly. Her research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Pew Foundation, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the Charles Warren Center, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. She has served as a consultant for the National Park Service and currently serves on the boards of the National Portrait Gallery and the Society of American Historians.
Jill lives in Cambridge,Massachusetts.
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award for the best non-fiction book on race, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; The Name of War (Knopf, 1998), winner of the Bancroft Prize, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, and the Berkshire Prize and a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Award.
A co-founder of the magazine Common-place, Lepore’s essays and reviews have also appeared in the New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, American Scholar, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, The Daily Beast, the Journal of American History and American Quarterly. Her research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Pew Foundation, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the Charles Warren Center, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. She has served as a consultant for the National Park Service and currently serves on the boards of the National Portrait Gallery and the Society of American Historians.
Jill lives in Cambridge,Massachusetts.
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February 28, 2014
This is an interesting biography of Jane Franklin Mecom, who was Benjamin Franklin's sister. Everyone knows Mr. Benjamin as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, but his sister Jane was almost lost to history.
Benny and Jenny, as they were nicknamed as children, were kindred spirits and exchanged many frank and personal letters during their lifetime. "The two eyes of man do not more resemble, nor are capable of being upon better terms with each other, than my sister and myself," Benjamin once wrote.
Jane was born in 1712, when Benjamin was 6 years old. It was Benjamin who taught Jane how to write, which was a rare skill for women. From the viewpoint of the 21st century, it is still disturbing to learn how little of an education girls were given back then. No public school in Boston enrolled girls. "Everyone needed to learn to read, but there was no need for a girl to learn to write ... At home and at school, when boys were taught to write, girls learned to stitch. Boys held quills; girls held needles."
In addition to writing, Benjamin also urged his sister to read, and often sent her books from his travels. She had little free time while doing chores and raising her children, but she was eager to read whenever she could. She confided to her brother: "I read as much as I dare."
Sadly, most of Jane's letters appear to have been lost to time. We know they existed because Benjamin references them in his own letters, more of which have survived. Lepore pieces together Jane Franklin's life from other documents, including newspapers, Benjamin's letters, and also a small book that Jane herself wrote, which she titled Book of Ages. It was a chronicle of births and deaths in her family, including her 12 children.
Lepore quietly and repeatedly points out that Jane was smart and shrewd, and perhaps if she had been given more of an education or if women's roles weren't so restricted, she might have played an important role in society and politics, similar to her brother. It's always fun to play the "What If" game with history, and in this case, I think it might be true.
In the Appendix about her research methods, Lepore admits how frustrating it was to try to learn more about Jane when so little of her writing has survived. "For a long time, I was so discouraged that I abandoned the project altogether. I thought about writing a novel instead. But I decided, in the end, to write a biography, a book meant not only as a life of Jane Franklin Mecom but, more, as a meditation on silence in the archives. I wanted to write a history from the Reformation through the American Revolution by telling the story of a single life, using this most ordinary of lives to offer a history of history and to explain how history is written: from what remains of the lives of the great, the bad, and, not as often, the good."
The book is a bit slow at the beginning, but I did enjoy reading about life in colonial America and the challenges Jane faced, especially during the War of Independence. Jane and her family fled for their lives on several occasions, which made it even more difficult to track down relatives later. It was also fun to see the different spellings of early English. Lepore noted that the idea of "correct" spelling didn't come until there were rules for printers. "People used to spell however they pleased, even spelling their own names differently from one day to the next ... But only the learned, only the lettered, knew how to spell."
The book also has good details about Ben Franklin's career, but not so much that it overwhelms the narrative about Jane. I would recommend it to fans of history, especially to those who want to know more about the lives of women in early America. As Ben Franklin once wrote in Poor Richard's Almanack, "One half of the world does not know how the other half lives."
Benny and Jenny, as they were nicknamed as children, were kindred spirits and exchanged many frank and personal letters during their lifetime. "The two eyes of man do not more resemble, nor are capable of being upon better terms with each other, than my sister and myself," Benjamin once wrote.
Jane was born in 1712, when Benjamin was 6 years old. It was Benjamin who taught Jane how to write, which was a rare skill for women. From the viewpoint of the 21st century, it is still disturbing to learn how little of an education girls were given back then. No public school in Boston enrolled girls. "Everyone needed to learn to read, but there was no need for a girl to learn to write ... At home and at school, when boys were taught to write, girls learned to stitch. Boys held quills; girls held needles."
In addition to writing, Benjamin also urged his sister to read, and often sent her books from his travels. She had little free time while doing chores and raising her children, but she was eager to read whenever she could. She confided to her brother: "I read as much as I dare."
Sadly, most of Jane's letters appear to have been lost to time. We know they existed because Benjamin references them in his own letters, more of which have survived. Lepore pieces together Jane Franklin's life from other documents, including newspapers, Benjamin's letters, and also a small book that Jane herself wrote, which she titled Book of Ages. It was a chronicle of births and deaths in her family, including her 12 children.
Lepore quietly and repeatedly points out that Jane was smart and shrewd, and perhaps if she had been given more of an education or if women's roles weren't so restricted, she might have played an important role in society and politics, similar to her brother. It's always fun to play the "What If" game with history, and in this case, I think it might be true.
In the Appendix about her research methods, Lepore admits how frustrating it was to try to learn more about Jane when so little of her writing has survived. "For a long time, I was so discouraged that I abandoned the project altogether. I thought about writing a novel instead. But I decided, in the end, to write a biography, a book meant not only as a life of Jane Franklin Mecom but, more, as a meditation on silence in the archives. I wanted to write a history from the Reformation through the American Revolution by telling the story of a single life, using this most ordinary of lives to offer a history of history and to explain how history is written: from what remains of the lives of the great, the bad, and, not as often, the good."
The book is a bit slow at the beginning, but I did enjoy reading about life in colonial America and the challenges Jane faced, especially during the War of Independence. Jane and her family fled for their lives on several occasions, which made it even more difficult to track down relatives later. It was also fun to see the different spellings of early English. Lepore noted that the idea of "correct" spelling didn't come until there were rules for printers. "People used to spell however they pleased, even spelling their own names differently from one day to the next ... But only the learned, only the lettered, knew how to spell."
The book also has good details about Ben Franklin's career, but not so much that it overwhelms the narrative about Jane. I would recommend it to fans of history, especially to those who want to know more about the lives of women in early America. As Ben Franklin once wrote in Poor Richard's Almanack, "One half of the world does not know how the other half lives."
August 8, 2013
Looking beyond great men and big events makes history leap to life--the captivating story of Ben Franklin’s sister Jane
I first learned about Jane “Jenny” Franklin in an earlier book by Jill Lepore, The Whites of Their Eyes, and though there isn’t more than a few pages on her I was so moved and taken by her story that it’s my strongest memory of that book and I was left wanting to know more. Jill Lepore’s mother must have felt the same way because, as I read in Lepore’s recent New Yorker article, she kept urging Lepore to write Jane Franklin’s biography. But there was a problem. Jane was not famous like her brother Ben, so information about her, though tantalizing, is not abundant. I’m very glad Lepore persevered anyway because it’s Jane’s everywoman commonness that makes her story so fascinating. She was her brother’s equal--smart, inquisitive, innovative, and hardworking--but being female she wasn’t educated, she married young to a ne'er-do-well husband, and she had a dozen children, most of whom she outlived, so her life was very different from Ben’s. In spite of their disparate circumstances “Benny” and “Jenny” were close all of their lives and she was as caught up in the struggles for independence as he was.
Lepore has managed to weave together a haunting, intriguing, sometimes exciting biography by digging into many sources, and learning about Jane’s life made the history of her time vivid for me in ways that the lives of great men never have. I was on the edge of my seat reading about the events leading up to the American Revolution through her eyes. Along with thousands of others Jane had to flee her home in Boston when the British occupied the city. She was 63 years old and the roads were jammed with people, many of whom were not sure exactly where they were going to go. She locked her house before she left, but knew the soldiers would break in, take what they wanted, and destroy the rest (she was right.) Using the cunning she shared with her brother, she did manage to smuggle out some of her possessions, right under the noses of officials who were meant to stop such activity.
Lepore’s writings always dig deep, making you think and engaging your emotions. She has a way with words so reading her is a pleasure. In Book of Ages she’s rescued a worthy woman from obscurity--I couldn’t put this book down.
I first learned about Jane “Jenny” Franklin in an earlier book by Jill Lepore, The Whites of Their Eyes, and though there isn’t more than a few pages on her I was so moved and taken by her story that it’s my strongest memory of that book and I was left wanting to know more. Jill Lepore’s mother must have felt the same way because, as I read in Lepore’s recent New Yorker article, she kept urging Lepore to write Jane Franklin’s biography. But there was a problem. Jane was not famous like her brother Ben, so information about her, though tantalizing, is not abundant. I’m very glad Lepore persevered anyway because it’s Jane’s everywoman commonness that makes her story so fascinating. She was her brother’s equal--smart, inquisitive, innovative, and hardworking--but being female she wasn’t educated, she married young to a ne'er-do-well husband, and she had a dozen children, most of whom she outlived, so her life was very different from Ben’s. In spite of their disparate circumstances “Benny” and “Jenny” were close all of their lives and she was as caught up in the struggles for independence as he was.
Lepore has managed to weave together a haunting, intriguing, sometimes exciting biography by digging into many sources, and learning about Jane’s life made the history of her time vivid for me in ways that the lives of great men never have. I was on the edge of my seat reading about the events leading up to the American Revolution through her eyes. Along with thousands of others Jane had to flee her home in Boston when the British occupied the city. She was 63 years old and the roads were jammed with people, many of whom were not sure exactly where they were going to go. She locked her house before she left, but knew the soldiers would break in, take what they wanted, and destroy the rest (she was right.) Using the cunning she shared with her brother, she did manage to smuggle out some of her possessions, right under the noses of officials who were meant to stop such activity.
Lepore’s writings always dig deep, making you think and engaging your emotions. She has a way with words so reading her is a pleasure. In Book of Ages she’s rescued a worthy woman from obscurity--I couldn’t put this book down.
November 9, 2013
I won this book from Goodreads' giveaway program and was very excited! I'm so sad to write a review that is anything but flattering, but this is my honest opinion: Considering the title of the book, "The Book of Ages, The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin", I naively thought that the book would actually focus on Ms. Franklin. But because there was so little known about Jane, the majority of the book discussed Benjamin Franklin, and the general time in which this brother and sister lived. I've read Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, which was so much more interesting than the descriptions of him contained in this book. The author also included small stories about a host of people who had no relevance at all to Jane's life for the sole purpose of providing a context for the minimal details concerning Jane. Of the book, approximately 10-15% of it actually discussed Jane, and most of that only recounted the children she had. The writing was so dry that reading this was not enjoyable. The biggest disappointment for me was that Jane's personality barely emerged. Not only did she not do anything particularly meaningful in her own life, but she was not influential in the success of anyone else's life either, at least not in the 100 or so pages of the book I read. Honestly, I just can't figure out why this book was written, and was furious that the book claimed to be something it was not. The only thing that did interest me was the history of the book's title and the connection to Jane. The actual scrawl of the words "Book of Ages" on the cover is a replica of Jane's own hand and title of a small book of papers she bound together, which I thought was neat! I'm searching my brain to think of someone who would enjoy this book, and I can only imagine it would be the small group of people who need to know absolutely everything about Benjamin Franklin and the time in which he lived.
Read more of my reviews on my blog: http://fastpageturner.wordpress.com
Read more of my reviews on my blog: http://fastpageturner.wordpress.com
December 21, 2013
In a way I received more than I wanted from this book and less than I expected. So little is known about Ben Franklin's sister that the author had to use quite a bit of filler and off topic information. The whole history in England, of the beginnings of the family and pf course how the family spread, how Franklin made so much of his self coming from so little. Much of this information was fascinating but at the same time not what I expected from this book.
Did expect more information on Jane and really enjoyed the parts of this book that were about her. So sad that she never had her own room until she was in her sixties, she didn"t complain about that fact but did relish her own space when she was finally able to attain it.
Ben Franklin is one person in history I would have liked to have met. He was a singular and capable individual, more than capable and left his imprint in history. Nothing I read of this man could be considered a waste of time but the book could have been shorter considering so little of his sister is actually known.
Did expect more information on Jane and really enjoyed the parts of this book that were about her. So sad that she never had her own room until she was in her sixties, she didn"t complain about that fact but did relish her own space when she was finally able to attain it.
Ben Franklin is one person in history I would have liked to have met. He was a singular and capable individual, more than capable and left his imprint in history. Nothing I read of this man could be considered a waste of time but the book could have been shorter considering so little of his sister is actually known.
August 11, 2016
It is difficult to convey the pleasure and excitement with which I read this history of Jane Franklin Mecom. Lepore carefully reconstructs the period in which the Franklins lived and pieces together the life of Franklin’s sister from fragments—using a few of the many letters she wrote to her famous brother, Benjamin Franklin. She forces one realize again what historical research requires, and how much we miss. But one comes away from Jane’s Book of Ages with wonder and awe at how much Lepore was able to capture through her assiduous researches.
Jane was the youngest of eight living children of Abiah and Josiah Franklin, six years younger than the youngest son, her famous and favorite brother, Benjamin. Franklin’s was a family of tradesmen, soapmakers, saddlemakers, candlemakers, and printers. Jane was born in late March 1712, married at fifteen and lived until early May 1794. She was eighty-three.
Jane Mecom née Franklin birthed some thirteen or fourteen children, most of whom preceded her in death. It is now thought that the family may have been tubercular, for they did not thrive, were languishing in health, layabout in deed, and several went mad if they survived beyond their twenties. “Very few we know is Able to beat thro all Impedements and Arive to any Grat Degre of superiority in Understanding.” Providence. So few are able to overcome the meanness of their birth and life to achieve something meaningful. Her brother did. In a different world, she might have been his equal.
Jane was scarcely free from child-raising her entire life. She admits that “tho they give grat Pleasure in common yet the Noise of them is some times troublesome.” And “I write among so much noise & confusion that if I had any thing of consequence I could no Recolect it.” She yearned to hear news of “Politicks” and every detail of the lives of her brother and her extended family. She loved to read and often asked that specific books be sent to her so that she could add them to her library.
This is thrilling history not only because of the momentous times in which Jane lived—through the cloth and tea boycotts in Boston, the battles at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and the longer war for independence that became the birth of the nation. She was a intimate correspondent with one of the most famous designers of the Constitution and loved and was beloved of him all her life.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this history is the fact that Lepore was able to construct it at all, given that so little remained of the woman and her chattel. Lepore has labored mightily to reconstruct this intimate portrait of a woman, her life, and locale. And this history does what all great histories do: they make us yearn to read more, discover more, learn all we can.
Jane was the youngest of eight living children of Abiah and Josiah Franklin, six years younger than the youngest son, her famous and favorite brother, Benjamin. Franklin’s was a family of tradesmen, soapmakers, saddlemakers, candlemakers, and printers. Jane was born in late March 1712, married at fifteen and lived until early May 1794. She was eighty-three.
Jane Mecom née Franklin birthed some thirteen or fourteen children, most of whom preceded her in death. It is now thought that the family may have been tubercular, for they did not thrive, were languishing in health, layabout in deed, and several went mad if they survived beyond their twenties. “Very few we know is Able to beat thro all Impedements and Arive to any Grat Degre of superiority in Understanding.” Providence. So few are able to overcome the meanness of their birth and life to achieve something meaningful. Her brother did. In a different world, she might have been his equal.
Jane was scarcely free from child-raising her entire life. She admits that “tho they give grat Pleasure in common yet the Noise of them is some times troublesome.” And “I write among so much noise & confusion that if I had any thing of consequence I could no Recolect it.” She yearned to hear news of “Politicks” and every detail of the lives of her brother and her extended family. She loved to read and often asked that specific books be sent to her so that she could add them to her library.
This is thrilling history not only because of the momentous times in which Jane lived—through the cloth and tea boycotts in Boston, the battles at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and the longer war for independence that became the birth of the nation. She was a intimate correspondent with one of the most famous designers of the Constitution and loved and was beloved of him all her life.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this history is the fact that Lepore was able to construct it at all, given that so little remained of the woman and her chattel. Lepore has labored mightily to reconstruct this intimate portrait of a woman, her life, and locale. And this history does what all great histories do: they make us yearn to read more, discover more, learn all we can.
November 27, 2013
She was born in 1712 but none of her letters before 1758 survived. She learned to write during a time when three in five women in New England could not sign their names. She never sat for a portrait. She collected a library of everything her brother, Ben Franklin, wrote. Her brother taught himself to write by reading, and he taught her through letter-writing. They wrote to each other often and at a later stage in life, they seemed to be best friends. Yet he never mentioned her in his memoir (though given what I know now, one can only wonder if she was edited out of his memoir). What did remain of Jane Franklin did so because she was Benjamin Franklin's sister. These are the remains that her biographer, Lepore pieced together so eloquently to tell this story.
Biography and history fascinates me. Yet there is something even more appealing about the lives of the obscure--the idea that ordinary lives speak in extraordinary volume. In this historical juxtaposition of the scholarly brother and homemaker sister, there are some really great snippets of American history, America's break from Great Britain, and the rise of the book printing and literary worlds.
At only 267 pages (the rest of the book consists of notes and appendices), this was an informational read. I might say more about it later, if I get a moment to switch from the touch screen to a laptop and actually organize my thoughts...
Biography and history fascinates me. Yet there is something even more appealing about the lives of the obscure--the idea that ordinary lives speak in extraordinary volume. In this historical juxtaposition of the scholarly brother and homemaker sister, there are some really great snippets of American history, America's break from Great Britain, and the rise of the book printing and literary worlds.
At only 267 pages (the rest of the book consists of notes and appendices), this was an informational read. I might say more about it later, if I get a moment to switch from the touch screen to a laptop and actually organize my thoughts...
July 6, 2021
Because of books like this, I wish that goodreads offered rating options in addition to stars. Gleaning as much information as she did from the limited information available about Jane Franklin really was an astonishing feat. I would like to give Jill Lepore 5+ stars for research and insight. I gave it three stars overall because it is tedious to read and the emphasis on the life of Jane's brother, Ben Franklin (not surprisingly) is overly emphasized. Honestly, I would have preferred more commentary about the lives of women in colonial times. This is an important book and an excellent springboard for discussion about gender roles throughout US history.
September 16, 2024
I know that Jill Lepore has a sterling reputation as a historian and author, which makes my disappointment with this book especially keen.
In brief (something the author seems incapable of being): It's bloated, with very little actually about "the life and opinions of Jane Franklin," the alleged subject of the book. Most of what Lepore does tell us of Ben Franklin's favorite sibling isn't all that impressive, until the last few years of her life. Mostly, Jane did what the wives of middling tradesmen of her day generally did: Had babies, read her Bible, maybe took in boarders or did sewing to help make ends meet.
I understand the need to put Jane's life into perspective, especially since the author's point is to show how Jane's (eventual) intellectual combativeness stood out compared with the limited role of women in Colonial times. But I fail to see how the long digressions about Lady Jane Grey (who predated Jane Franklin by two centuries) or Jane Austen (who was barely 20 when Jane Franklin died) or analyses of Biblical texts provide significant context.
Moreover, Lepore wastes pages and pages by constantly repeating her points three times. First, she'll alert us that (I'm paraphrasing) "Jane wanted to read Benjamin's newest book." Then she'll quote a long sentence from Jane's letter to Ben asking to read his book. Then she'll remind us: "Jane wanted to read Ben's book!"
Speaking of Jane Grey: Sorry, but Lepore lost my confidence on page 1, when she seems to have mangled a common schoolyard refrain about Henry VIII's six wives. (The Wars of the Roses, including the Tudors who followed, is one of my side hobbies, so I know the actual refrain.)
This would have been interesting as a magazine article.
In brief (something the author seems incapable of being): It's bloated, with very little actually about "the life and opinions of Jane Franklin," the alleged subject of the book. Most of what Lepore does tell us of Ben Franklin's favorite sibling isn't all that impressive, until the last few years of her life. Mostly, Jane did what the wives of middling tradesmen of her day generally did: Had babies, read her Bible, maybe took in boarders or did sewing to help make ends meet.
I understand the need to put Jane's life into perspective, especially since the author's point is to show how Jane's (eventual) intellectual combativeness stood out compared with the limited role of women in Colonial times. But I fail to see how the long digressions about Lady Jane Grey (who predated Jane Franklin by two centuries) or Jane Austen (who was barely 20 when Jane Franklin died) or analyses of Biblical texts provide significant context.
Moreover, Lepore wastes pages and pages by constantly repeating her points three times. First, she'll alert us that (I'm paraphrasing) "Jane wanted to read Benjamin's newest book." Then she'll quote a long sentence from Jane's letter to Ben asking to read his book. Then she'll remind us: "Jane wanted to read Ben's book!"
Speaking of Jane Grey: Sorry, but Lepore lost my confidence on page 1, when she seems to have mangled a common schoolyard refrain about Henry VIII's six wives. (The Wars of the Roses, including the Tudors who followed, is one of my side hobbies, so I know the actual refrain.)
This would have been interesting as a magazine article.
November 8, 2013
I'm supposed to be finished with all things Franklin and working on the next book, but I couldn't resist. When people used to ask me what kind of historical fiction I wrote I'd say "small stories about big ideas." Benjamin Franklin's Bastard was first that could be called a "big story," but I found myself once again focusing on the women involved in that story who had fallen into the historical cracks. I so loved to sink my teeth into Jill Lepore's book about what might appear to be another small piece of that story and find it stood so wondrously tall, that Benjamin Franklin's sister was at last given back her life, along with its significance.
November 22, 2013
Everywoman's History
"Book of Ages" is history at its most enjoyable. Though the book purports to be mostly about Jane Franklin Mecom it's more about her brother Benjamin and the history of the time they lived in. This is not a negative and it is not because of a lack of research effort on author Jill Lepore's part. Jane was a nobody. This resulted in most of the letters she wrote to her beloved brother being lost. They were destroyed due because they were not considered valuable. On the other hand, even in his own time, Franklin's letters were not only valued but often shared and savored and discussed by the recipient and their friends and acquaintances. Jane was largely unschooled as was true for most women and, no doubt, many men of the time. Her spelling is instinctual. Her ideas however, are humorous and insightful. She was well read by any standards. She also had a ne'er do well husband and many children and then grandchildren and great grand children to care for and she lived far longer than most people of the time. She was an uncommonly educated and thoughtful woman, an odd combination of being extraordinary and yet an everywoman.
Lepore's book says as much about how history is passed down as it does about Jane and Ben and their loving relationship. She talks about writing and the evolution of literature in general, she touches on key points in our nation's beginning, most affectingly she talks about people and their relationships with one another. She brings daily life in the mid to late 1700's alive with many details. Constant tending to children, soap making, the contemporary apprenticeship system, endless struggle to stay alive during the Revolutionary War years and its preamble and the years that followed, etc. This is history told on a human level.
This review is based on an advance reader's copy provided by the publisher.
(Disclaimer given as required by the FTC.)
"Book of Ages" is history at its most enjoyable. Though the book purports to be mostly about Jane Franklin Mecom it's more about her brother Benjamin and the history of the time they lived in. This is not a negative and it is not because of a lack of research effort on author Jill Lepore's part. Jane was a nobody. This resulted in most of the letters she wrote to her beloved brother being lost. They were destroyed due because they were not considered valuable. On the other hand, even in his own time, Franklin's letters were not only valued but often shared and savored and discussed by the recipient and their friends and acquaintances. Jane was largely unschooled as was true for most women and, no doubt, many men of the time. Her spelling is instinctual. Her ideas however, are humorous and insightful. She was well read by any standards. She also had a ne'er do well husband and many children and then grandchildren and great grand children to care for and she lived far longer than most people of the time. She was an uncommonly educated and thoughtful woman, an odd combination of being extraordinary and yet an everywoman.
Lepore's book says as much about how history is passed down as it does about Jane and Ben and their loving relationship. She talks about writing and the evolution of literature in general, she touches on key points in our nation's beginning, most affectingly she talks about people and their relationships with one another. She brings daily life in the mid to late 1700's alive with many details. Constant tending to children, soap making, the contemporary apprenticeship system, endless struggle to stay alive during the Revolutionary War years and its preamble and the years that followed, etc. This is history told on a human level.
This review is based on an advance reader's copy provided by the publisher.
(Disclaimer given as required by the FTC.)
November 5, 2013
I will be the first to admit that I doubt my own rating. I do not usually read historical non-fiction, and I do not expect to start. What made me purchase this book was an interview with Jill Lepore on NPR. She spoke of Jane Franklin so eloquently - and even tenderly - that I felt curious and moved. I have been exhausted by a string of high-profile nonfiction books by people like Eric Larsen and his "Look at me!" brand of constructing historical narrative that I honestly was not sure what it would be like if a non-fiction author so loved her character that she was willing to stay out of the way. Now I know. Jill Lepore constructs a complex and detailed narrative with admiration and sincerity. She examines a life few others have thought to. I read ever word, some of them twice. Sometimes, I got a little bored. But I loved this story so much that I did not care.
January 17, 2014
I was half way through the book (49% on my kindle, I think) when Jane died and Lepore started ruminating on the difference between fiction and history. I got excited, thinking "Now the book is going to start in earnest, after a long demonstration of the tiny bits of information available for straight history." But, spoiler alert, the rest of the book was appendices.
Lepore's New Yorker article about Jane Franklin had all the wallop and most of the interesting detail that were in the book. The best part I think is the premise -- a real life working out of Virginia Woolf's speculation about what Shakespeare's sister's life might have been like. But it was all so misty - glimpses of Jane, bits of quotes from letters, huge chunks of time elided.
It turns out that the appendices were pretty interesting - detailed footnotes, descriptions of the books Jane probably read. I'm now wondering if that was the point of the book -- Lepore leaves it to us to put the pieces together and imagine the story?
Still, I think there was a lot more information available to her and she could have given us more to work on. A family of 14 and a soap making business in a tiny four room house! Can't historians of 18th century Boston tell us more about what that would have been like? Jane was actually living with Franklin in Philadelphia in 1776! Couldn't there have been some speculation about the ideas she would have been exposed to, the conversations she may have participated in?
Lepore's New Yorker article about Jane Franklin had all the wallop and most of the interesting detail that were in the book. The best part I think is the premise -- a real life working out of Virginia Woolf's speculation about what Shakespeare's sister's life might have been like. But it was all so misty - glimpses of Jane, bits of quotes from letters, huge chunks of time elided.
It turns out that the appendices were pretty interesting - detailed footnotes, descriptions of the books Jane probably read. I'm now wondering if that was the point of the book -- Lepore leaves it to us to put the pieces together and imagine the story?
Still, I think there was a lot more information available to her and she could have given us more to work on. A family of 14 and a soap making business in a tiny four room house! Can't historians of 18th century Boston tell us more about what that would have been like? Jane was actually living with Franklin in Philadelphia in 1776! Couldn't there have been some speculation about the ideas she would have been exposed to, the conversations she may have participated in?
March 29, 2015
I loved this book. It's unique in its juxtaposition of the lives of an unknown 18th-century woman, Jane Franklin Mecom and her universally-known and admired brother, Benjamin Franklin. The one illuminates the other, and both illuminate colonial America in a way I haven't understood it before. From recipes for soap (wax myrtle?) to the travails of childbirth and child rearing, the difficulties in getting from here to there safely, and even sending and receiving letters--BOOK OF AGES is enormously informative. It gave me a glimpse of Benjamin Franklin as a real person (as opposed to the image he wanted us to have),and a long look into the life of a woman who was essentially real, who gave no thought to image.
What impresses me most about the book: the importance of reading and writing in Jane's life, and her longing for time and opportunity to read and write more. "I read as much as I dare," Jane once wrote to her brother. I've been a reader all my life. But reading this book, I am challenged to dare even more.
What impresses me most about the book: the importance of reading and writing in Jane's life, and her longing for time and opportunity to read and write more. "I read as much as I dare," Jane once wrote to her brother. I've been a reader all my life. But reading this book, I am challenged to dare even more.
October 18, 2013
"I know the most Insignificant creature on Earth may be made some Use of in the Scale of Beings, may Touch some Spring, or Verge to some wheel unpercived by us."
--Jane Franklin, In a Letter to her Brother, 1786
"One Half of the World does not know how the other Half lives."
--Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1732-1758
For ages now, our culture has been grossly afflicted with the Great Man Syndrome, a malady that contaminates both individuals and the collective. In an individual, the syndrome presents itself predominantly in high-achieving males as the conviction that they are fundamentally central to human existence, sovereign agents of history. In the aggregate, the illness manifests in the mass delusion that certain male individuals by the sheer force of their achievements are alone responsible for determining our collective destiny. The disease, having infected the population in plague-like numbers, has mutated into the belief that fame at whatever cost is a supreme value, an ordinary life cause for shame.
In her Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, Jill Lepore challenges the pre-eminence of The Great Man in historical and biographical writing. She brilliantly excavates the life of Jane Franklin, youngest sister of Benjamin, mother of twelve, wife of a "bad man or a mad man," and an avid reader whenever she could forgo housework. In a rich account of an ordinary life of struggle, failure, and occasional delight, Lepore paints a revelatory portrait of an age, inclusive of the female perspective and experience.
Lepore's groundbreaking book is reminiscent of Jean Strouse's formidable biography of Alice James, sister to William and Henry (see my earlier column). The obvious, however, must be stated: It is highly unlikely that Alice James or Jane Franklin would have been deemed viable subjects for books by today's trade publishers if it weren't for these women's association with Great Men. An ordinary life -- especially an ordinary woman's life -- remains the stuff of ignominy.
Lepore describes Jane and Benjamin's close relationship: Jane considered Benjamin her "Second Self"; Benjamin wrote more letters to Jane during his lifetime than to anyone else. Of Jane's many letters to her brother, none survive before 1758 when she was forty-eight. In Benjamin Franklin's autobiography -- "an allegory about America: the story of a man as the story of a nation" -- Benjamin never once mentioned Jane. In writing Jane's biography, Lepore had few facts and scant remains to work with. "Her obscurity," she writes, "is matched only by her brother's fame. If he meant to be Everyman, she is everyone else." Historian Lepore's project investigates "what it means to write history not from what survives but from what is lost."
Lepore, using more the historian's tools than the novelist's, imagines the trajectory of Jane's life, given the legal and social status of women at the time. "The two eyes of man do not more resemble," Benjamin wrote, "nor are capable of being upon better terms with each other, than my sister and myself." Benjamin, however, went to school; Jane did not. Benjamin taught his little sister to read and write, but when he ran away from home, abandoning his poverty-stricken, soap-making family in search of a better life, Jane's education ended. For her to run away, depriving parents and siblings of her much needed help, was unthinkable. When Benjamin became sexually active he took a mistress and fathered a child. When Jane, at sixteen, got the urge, she likely became pregnant, forcing her to marry a ne'er-do-well.
Upon marrying, Jane became under the eyes of the law a feme covert: "The very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing." Jane could not earn money without her husband's permission, and all she earned was his. She couldn't own property or sign a contract.
Benjamin Franklin became a printer, and by 1748 was, at forty-two, "the largest bookseller in Philadelphia and the most important paper merchant in the colonies." He soon retired, devoting himself to science and writing a book, Experiments and Observations on Electricity. In 1751, the year Benjamin's book was published, Jane, forty-one, was pregnant with her twelfth child. She too had authored a book. She'd composed it on paper made from rags, sewn with thread made from flax. She'd written the title, Book of Ages, in ink made of boiled oil mixed with soot. The contents were the names of all the births, marriages, and deaths in her family. She wrote: "Abiah mecom born augst 1st 1751." Of her twelve children, she would record in her book the deaths of eleven.
Read the rest of the review at Booklslut (http://www.bookslut.com/the_bombshell...)
--Jane Franklin, In a Letter to her Brother, 1786
"One Half of the World does not know how the other Half lives."
--Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1732-1758
For ages now, our culture has been grossly afflicted with the Great Man Syndrome, a malady that contaminates both individuals and the collective. In an individual, the syndrome presents itself predominantly in high-achieving males as the conviction that they are fundamentally central to human existence, sovereign agents of history. In the aggregate, the illness manifests in the mass delusion that certain male individuals by the sheer force of their achievements are alone responsible for determining our collective destiny. The disease, having infected the population in plague-like numbers, has mutated into the belief that fame at whatever cost is a supreme value, an ordinary life cause for shame.
In her Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, Jill Lepore challenges the pre-eminence of The Great Man in historical and biographical writing. She brilliantly excavates the life of Jane Franklin, youngest sister of Benjamin, mother of twelve, wife of a "bad man or a mad man," and an avid reader whenever she could forgo housework. In a rich account of an ordinary life of struggle, failure, and occasional delight, Lepore paints a revelatory portrait of an age, inclusive of the female perspective and experience.
Lepore's groundbreaking book is reminiscent of Jean Strouse's formidable biography of Alice James, sister to William and Henry (see my earlier column). The obvious, however, must be stated: It is highly unlikely that Alice James or Jane Franklin would have been deemed viable subjects for books by today's trade publishers if it weren't for these women's association with Great Men. An ordinary life -- especially an ordinary woman's life -- remains the stuff of ignominy.
Lepore describes Jane and Benjamin's close relationship: Jane considered Benjamin her "Second Self"; Benjamin wrote more letters to Jane during his lifetime than to anyone else. Of Jane's many letters to her brother, none survive before 1758 when she was forty-eight. In Benjamin Franklin's autobiography -- "an allegory about America: the story of a man as the story of a nation" -- Benjamin never once mentioned Jane. In writing Jane's biography, Lepore had few facts and scant remains to work with. "Her obscurity," she writes, "is matched only by her brother's fame. If he meant to be Everyman, she is everyone else." Historian Lepore's project investigates "what it means to write history not from what survives but from what is lost."
Lepore, using more the historian's tools than the novelist's, imagines the trajectory of Jane's life, given the legal and social status of women at the time. "The two eyes of man do not more resemble," Benjamin wrote, "nor are capable of being upon better terms with each other, than my sister and myself." Benjamin, however, went to school; Jane did not. Benjamin taught his little sister to read and write, but when he ran away from home, abandoning his poverty-stricken, soap-making family in search of a better life, Jane's education ended. For her to run away, depriving parents and siblings of her much needed help, was unthinkable. When Benjamin became sexually active he took a mistress and fathered a child. When Jane, at sixteen, got the urge, she likely became pregnant, forcing her to marry a ne'er-do-well.
Upon marrying, Jane became under the eyes of the law a feme covert: "The very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing." Jane could not earn money without her husband's permission, and all she earned was his. She couldn't own property or sign a contract.
Benjamin Franklin became a printer, and by 1748 was, at forty-two, "the largest bookseller in Philadelphia and the most important paper merchant in the colonies." He soon retired, devoting himself to science and writing a book, Experiments and Observations on Electricity. In 1751, the year Benjamin's book was published, Jane, forty-one, was pregnant with her twelfth child. She too had authored a book. She'd composed it on paper made from rags, sewn with thread made from flax. She'd written the title, Book of Ages, in ink made of boiled oil mixed with soot. The contents were the names of all the births, marriages, and deaths in her family. She wrote: "Abiah mecom born augst 1st 1751." Of her twelve children, she would record in her book the deaths of eleven.
Read the rest of the review at Booklslut (http://www.bookslut.com/the_bombshell...)
March 30, 2014
Jill Lepore does a great job of recreating Jane Franklin's life as best as she can, given that, as the author says, "her paper trail is miserably scant." Because of that, Book of Ages becomes almost more of a reflection about the lost lives of those who aren't documented, especially the women of the past. (She asks the question that Virginia Woolf originally asked: "What would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called Judith?") In a way, I learned more about life back then than I would reading about Benjamin Franklin or any of the other founding fathers. However, at times, given lack of material, Lepore delved into relatives of Jane's that didn't seem particularly relevant or interesting. Still, I'm glad I read the book. I'm even more glad that, as a woman, I was born a couple hundred years after Jane Franklin because what struck me most is how challenging and exhausting her life was.
December 23, 2013
When Benjamin Franklin ran away from Boston, fed up with his older brother’s dictatorial treatment of him as an apprentice at his newspaper, he left behind a large family that included Jane, his youngest sister. But no matter how involved he became in business, journalism, science and public affairs, Franklin never forgot to maintain his connection with Jane. Why he did so is the haunting story that Jill Lepore explores with pertinacity and patience.
This is a biography that almost did not get written because of the gaps in evidence about Jane’s life and the biographer’s doubts that a narrative could be fashioned out of the scant remains of a figure deemed unimportant by Franklin’s early biographers — especially by Jared Sparks, who believed, in his 19th-century way, that only great men made history.
But Lepore took her inspiration from Virginia Woolf, who mused about what it would have been like to be Shakespeare’s sister, a Judith who didn’t have the opportunity to write as her brother did because women were not expected or, in most cases, were not allowed to do so. Instead, they were to husband their husbands, make a home and raise children — or, in Jane’s case, many children.
Yet Franklin recognized in his sister not merely a family bond, but a woman like those in Samuel Richardson’s novels, who had minds of their own. So he wrote to her and she wrote to him, often misspelling her meaning and apologizing for her meager education. He would not accept apologies, but saw in her words a wonderfully alert and independent sensibility. As she wrote after his death, “He while living was every enjoyment to me.”
In Jill Lepore’s wonderfully suggestive prose, Jane Franklin lives not merely as an individual rescued from obscurity, but as a character who brings to history and biography a new standard of measure, what the novelist Charles Brockden Brown called “a new kind of history,” which would deal with those who “have no historian,” but whose journals, letters and papers would show the “unjust prodigality of our sympathy to those few names, which eloquence has adorned with all the seduction of her graces.”
Out of a little book Jane called her “Book of Ages,” Lepore has re-created the life and the lineage of a personality worth knowing, one whose opinions her illustrious brother could not do without, given the pleasure they brought.
This is a biography that almost did not get written because of the gaps in evidence about Jane’s life and the biographer’s doubts that a narrative could be fashioned out of the scant remains of a figure deemed unimportant by Franklin’s early biographers — especially by Jared Sparks, who believed, in his 19th-century way, that only great men made history.
But Lepore took her inspiration from Virginia Woolf, who mused about what it would have been like to be Shakespeare’s sister, a Judith who didn’t have the opportunity to write as her brother did because women were not expected or, in most cases, were not allowed to do so. Instead, they were to husband their husbands, make a home and raise children — or, in Jane’s case, many children.
Yet Franklin recognized in his sister not merely a family bond, but a woman like those in Samuel Richardson’s novels, who had minds of their own. So he wrote to her and she wrote to him, often misspelling her meaning and apologizing for her meager education. He would not accept apologies, but saw in her words a wonderfully alert and independent sensibility. As she wrote after his death, “He while living was every enjoyment to me.”
In Jill Lepore’s wonderfully suggestive prose, Jane Franklin lives not merely as an individual rescued from obscurity, but as a character who brings to history and biography a new standard of measure, what the novelist Charles Brockden Brown called “a new kind of history,” which would deal with those who “have no historian,” but whose journals, letters and papers would show the “unjust prodigality of our sympathy to those few names, which eloquence has adorned with all the seduction of her graces.”
Out of a little book Jane called her “Book of Ages,” Lepore has re-created the life and the lineage of a personality worth knowing, one whose opinions her illustrious brother could not do without, given the pleasure they brought.
September 5, 2013
Sigh. Sadly, the author got in the way of this book about an interesting woman, Ben Franklin's younger sister.
Jane Franklin was the youngest of 17 (yes, seventeen!) children, and the one closest to her brother Ben. I'm sure at some time I knew that Ben was from Boston, but he's so identified with Philadelphia that I'd forgotten. She could read but her writing was - to put it mildly - poor. Fancy lettering at times, but fanciful spelling, grammar and what they used to call pointing and we now call punctuation. That's one of the problems with this book: the author felt compelled to translate the letters Jane wrote to her brother and others, usually with an awkward lead-in. There were other ways to have handled this that would have been smoother.
The author is upfront with us, admitting that we know very little about Jane's life (she's omitted from Ben's autobiography) except from what we read in her letters and the letters she received. And here comes the other device I found annoying: the author illustrates the poverty of Jane Franklin's life by comparing it to others (including Jane Austen). Of course there's a lot about Ben and his life, and because Jane was very family oriented, we get a lot about his children. We also have quite a lot about her family, which stretched to four generations. Sadly, we got reminded frequently about people and problems (and the House That Douse Lived In, and yes, you're meant to think about the House That Jack Built). Perhaps I'm different from most readers, but I can keep events and people straight over a few chapters.
Still, the opportunity to read about someone virtually forgotten by history and yet who played such an important role in the life of one of our Founding Fathers was wonderful. And despite the writing ticks and odd digressions, we get a great view of what life was like back in 1700s America.
ARC provided by publisher.
Jane Franklin was the youngest of 17 (yes, seventeen!) children, and the one closest to her brother Ben. I'm sure at some time I knew that Ben was from Boston, but he's so identified with Philadelphia that I'd forgotten. She could read but her writing was - to put it mildly - poor. Fancy lettering at times, but fanciful spelling, grammar and what they used to call pointing and we now call punctuation. That's one of the problems with this book: the author felt compelled to translate the letters Jane wrote to her brother and others, usually with an awkward lead-in. There were other ways to have handled this that would have been smoother.
The author is upfront with us, admitting that we know very little about Jane's life (she's omitted from Ben's autobiography) except from what we read in her letters and the letters she received. And here comes the other device I found annoying: the author illustrates the poverty of Jane Franklin's life by comparing it to others (including Jane Austen). Of course there's a lot about Ben and his life, and because Jane was very family oriented, we get a lot about his children. We also have quite a lot about her family, which stretched to four generations. Sadly, we got reminded frequently about people and problems (and the House That Douse Lived In, and yes, you're meant to think about the House That Jack Built). Perhaps I'm different from most readers, but I can keep events and people straight over a few chapters.
Still, the opportunity to read about someone virtually forgotten by history and yet who played such an important role in the life of one of our Founding Fathers was wonderful. And despite the writing ticks and odd digressions, we get a great view of what life was like back in 1700s America.
ARC provided by publisher.
February 26, 2016
What convinced me I needed to read this book was Jill Lepore's essay about her mother and this book's inception: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201.... It's beautiful. If you love the way she writes this essay, then you will appreciate this book, which was fascinating to me-- both for what I learned about women's lives during the Revolutionary War era and also for the beauty with which it is crafted. Over and over I was amazed by the depth of Lepore's research, impressed by the way she marshals so many resources (so many of them from other "obscure" women) to help flesh out Jane Franklin Mecom's life (because so much of her own historical record is missing), and awed by the way Lepore turns a phrase from the time (often from Jane herself) and makes it new, using it to highlight or underscore a larger point she is making about the history of women. It's just impressive. Lepore is a very gifted writer and thinker.
I am shocked by some of the low ratings this book has received on Goodreads-- especially at the ones saying it's boring (it does read more like a history, rather than creative non-fiction in the vein of Karen Abbott or Erik Larsen both of whom I admire for different reasons) or that "anyone could have written this book." No. The amount of research Lepore has done alone is beyond what "anyone" could do. But then the beauty with which it is woven together-- the sheer artfulness of this book!-- is genius. No one but Lepore could have written this book, and it is gorgeous. It forced me to slow down the usual break-neck speed with which I usually read and really savor Lepore's craft and her thesis-- women's lives may have been small, the historical record they left even more scant, but that does not mean that their stories should not be an integral part of history. I'm so glad I read her accounting of Jane Franklin Mecom's life.
I am shocked by some of the low ratings this book has received on Goodreads-- especially at the ones saying it's boring (it does read more like a history, rather than creative non-fiction in the vein of Karen Abbott or Erik Larsen both of whom I admire for different reasons) or that "anyone could have written this book." No. The amount of research Lepore has done alone is beyond what "anyone" could do. But then the beauty with which it is woven together-- the sheer artfulness of this book!-- is genius. No one but Lepore could have written this book, and it is gorgeous. It forced me to slow down the usual break-neck speed with which I usually read and really savor Lepore's craft and her thesis-- women's lives may have been small, the historical record they left even more scant, but that does not mean that their stories should not be an integral part of history. I'm so glad I read her accounting of Jane Franklin Mecom's life.
November 22, 2013
The subtitle of Book of Ages, The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, is what drew me to request this book. Jane was Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister, and as they were close in age they were also close in spirit. This, however, is a cautionary tale about the differences between them, not in intelligence, but in opportunities. We know what kind of life Benjamin Franklin lived and of his inventions, diplomacy, writing, and other accomplishments. Do you know anything about Jane? No. And that is simply because she was a woman in the 18th century who was not given the opportunity to rise above the restrictions on women of her time.
I know this book will anger many readers but unfortunately the history is correct. Jane's life was sad and mostly lived in poverty. Her brother was kind to her because he loved her so, and also recognized that her mind was capable of great thought. He tutored her when they were young, but then he left home and there her lessons had to stop. In future years as she struggled through her marriage to a weak, failure of a man and her almost steady pregnancies, her brother helped her financially and provided her with books. Reading is probably what saved her sanity through much of her sad life.
This book is thoroughly researched and Lepore seems to feel close to Jane and sympathy toward her situation. There are appendices, footnotes, and all the scholarly information that support her manuscript. It is written, though, so that amateurs in women's history and actually general readers as well can read it with great interest. Warning - it will make the modern reader angry at the waste of such an intelligent person, and also angry at the lack of help available for her with her children's medical and mental problems.
Recommended, especially for women's history readers
Source: Amazon Vine
I know this book will anger many readers but unfortunately the history is correct. Jane's life was sad and mostly lived in poverty. Her brother was kind to her because he loved her so, and also recognized that her mind was capable of great thought. He tutored her when they were young, but then he left home and there her lessons had to stop. In future years as she struggled through her marriage to a weak, failure of a man and her almost steady pregnancies, her brother helped her financially and provided her with books. Reading is probably what saved her sanity through much of her sad life.
This book is thoroughly researched and Lepore seems to feel close to Jane and sympathy toward her situation. There are appendices, footnotes, and all the scholarly information that support her manuscript. It is written, though, so that amateurs in women's history and actually general readers as well can read it with great interest. Warning - it will make the modern reader angry at the waste of such an intelligent person, and also angry at the lack of help available for her with her children's medical and mental problems.
Recommended, especially for women's history readers
Source: Amazon Vine
March 1, 2014
This book was a wonderful look into the life of a colonial woman in the margins of life. Jane Franklin may have had a famous brother, but it did not help her much in her life. Jane's life as a mother, wife, and sister are in plain prose of an uneducated woman who felt the need to educate herself. Jane bore and buried numerous children, helped her ne'er do well husband keep hearth and home together, but she never used her brother's prominence to make her livelihood. The Franklin family of soap boilers carried their legacy with her, she was well known for her soap, and while Benjamin was in France, he tried to get the family recipe from her--you never do find out if he did.
The history of how these letters of Jane Franklin Mecom came to be in the hands of the author is just as interesting as the story of Jane Franklin. This is a book for people that enjoy colonial social history, have deep interest in women's lives, as well as people that just wish to know more about Benjamin Franklin's family. Jane's hunger for more knowledge is very poignant in her letters to her brother; she wants books, books of all kinds! This book tells you not much about Jane's life itself, but it tells volumes about the life of colonial women--the hardship, the work, the birth and the death. I highly recommend this book to any lover of history, especially those interested in the history of the common person.
The history of how these letters of Jane Franklin Mecom came to be in the hands of the author is just as interesting as the story of Jane Franklin. This is a book for people that enjoy colonial social history, have deep interest in women's lives, as well as people that just wish to know more about Benjamin Franklin's family. Jane's hunger for more knowledge is very poignant in her letters to her brother; she wants books, books of all kinds! This book tells you not much about Jane's life itself, but it tells volumes about the life of colonial women--the hardship, the work, the birth and the death. I highly recommend this book to any lover of history, especially those interested in the history of the common person.
April 4, 2015
An interesting biography of Jane Franklin, the sister of Benjamin Franklin. She stayed in Boston while he ran away and afterwards they would see each other about every ten years, but they stayed close through letters. Many of the letters survived and they form the basis of the biography--supplemented by extrinsic knowledge of Franklin's life and the author's research into the role of women during the time
Much of the value of the book is giving the reader a different perspective of Franklin, he clearly loved his sister and repeatedly provided financial assistance to her. However, the book also portrays life of the "average" American during the time, Jane Franklin did not have her brother's fame or income and lived a life of struggle. It was depressing to read of all her children's deaths and the travails of some before they died, at least two had severe mental health issues which required the "treatment" of the time. The biography also does an excellent job of exploring the role and lives of women of the women with a focus on limited opportunity
Much of the value of the book is giving the reader a different perspective of Franklin, he clearly loved his sister and repeatedly provided financial assistance to her. However, the book also portrays life of the "average" American during the time, Jane Franklin did not have her brother's fame or income and lived a life of struggle. It was depressing to read of all her children's deaths and the travails of some before they died, at least two had severe mental health issues which required the "treatment" of the time. The biography also does an excellent job of exploring the role and lives of women of the women with a focus on limited opportunity
June 2, 2021
Reading Jill Lepore’s work for the first time was a revelation. Her voice is fresh and filled with energy, purpose, and intelligence. She performs intellectual gymnastics by flipping ideas on their head and connecting seemingly unconnectable ideas. Lepore’s scholarship is always accessible, but she never compromises. Her books are clear yet descriptive, well-paced, but never shallow. Lepore broadened my ideas of what a historical work could look like, sound like, be like, function like. While I have not read all of her work, I plan to. Some of her books are on subjects that would not, were they not written by her, call to me. But, she can make anything fascinating, so I’m sure I will become fascinated quickly. I adore non-fiction and biography, and Jill Lepore is the best writer of non-fiction and biography I have had the pleasure to read.
The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin is astounding. I almost started to cry after only the second page. Lepore has boundless empathy and reverence for Jane Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s forgotten sister. It is a myth that quiet lives make for quiet books. The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin speaks loudly, boldly, and clearly. Lepore illuminates the truth of what she calls “plain people:” ordinary homemakers, tradespeople, and other typically forgotten figures. Yet, while The Book of Ages illuminates ordinary reality, Lepore aptly explains the hurricane of forces that prevented Jane Franklin from having an extraordinary life, like that of her brother. These forces include her gender, class, marital status, and medical problems. Maybe, in another time or place, Jane Franklin could have achieved a full life. She was brilliant but stifled.
Nonetheless, Jane was strong – a quiet rebel – in the face of immense hardship. Jane’s life is not one of triumph; it is profoundly tragic and worsens when you hope it will get better. But, Lepore brought her life and opinions back to life with such force that you are left, not pitying Jane but applauding Jane. You are grateful for Jane’s perspective and voice. Jane’s friendship with her brother Benjamin Franklin also heartens your belief in love. Benjamin sent her more letters than anyone else. This flurry of correspondence shows the strength of trust, family, and understanding.
Since the material on Jane Franklin is so scant, Lepore weaves disparate elements together into a satisfying narrative. She discusses British and American history, Franklin genealogy, Benjamin Franklin, and more without ever overshading Jane. Jane is the lungs of the book. The other elements are only oxygen, supporting details.
Jane’s life was truly one dedicated to kindness and love. It was quiet, but it was not insignificant. Stories like these deserve to be told, and I am infinitely grateful when they are.
Overall, The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin is beautiful. We do not often describe non-fiction as beautiful, but from Lepore’s prose to her exhaustive scholarship, The Book of Ages is a beautiful and unforgettable read. Thank you, Lepore, for bringing this book to our age. I know that this will be a book for the ages.
The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin is astounding. I almost started to cry after only the second page. Lepore has boundless empathy and reverence for Jane Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s forgotten sister. It is a myth that quiet lives make for quiet books. The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin speaks loudly, boldly, and clearly. Lepore illuminates the truth of what she calls “plain people:” ordinary homemakers, tradespeople, and other typically forgotten figures. Yet, while The Book of Ages illuminates ordinary reality, Lepore aptly explains the hurricane of forces that prevented Jane Franklin from having an extraordinary life, like that of her brother. These forces include her gender, class, marital status, and medical problems. Maybe, in another time or place, Jane Franklin could have achieved a full life. She was brilliant but stifled.
Nonetheless, Jane was strong – a quiet rebel – in the face of immense hardship. Jane’s life is not one of triumph; it is profoundly tragic and worsens when you hope it will get better. But, Lepore brought her life and opinions back to life with such force that you are left, not pitying Jane but applauding Jane. You are grateful for Jane’s perspective and voice. Jane’s friendship with her brother Benjamin Franklin also heartens your belief in love. Benjamin sent her more letters than anyone else. This flurry of correspondence shows the strength of trust, family, and understanding.
Since the material on Jane Franklin is so scant, Lepore weaves disparate elements together into a satisfying narrative. She discusses British and American history, Franklin genealogy, Benjamin Franklin, and more without ever overshading Jane. Jane is the lungs of the book. The other elements are only oxygen, supporting details.
Jane’s life was truly one dedicated to kindness and love. It was quiet, but it was not insignificant. Stories like these deserve to be told, and I am infinitely grateful when they are.
Overall, The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin is beautiful. We do not often describe non-fiction as beautiful, but from Lepore’s prose to her exhaustive scholarship, The Book of Ages is a beautiful and unforgettable read. Thank you, Lepore, for bringing this book to our age. I know that this will be a book for the ages.
May 24, 2023
Absolutely loved this book. I learned so much! I am a super fan of Jane Franklin as a result of learning so much about her, Ben Franklin and their families.
June 1, 2015
Oooo this is good history! This book is about Jane Franklin Mecom, sister of Benjamin Franklin. What do we know about Jane? Not all that much, really, but Lepore is able to suss out from the few surviving letters to or from Jane - as well as a few letters that mention her and general knowledge of the period - what the life of an intelligent but poorly educated colonial woman must have been like. The contrast between the lives of Benjamin and his sister Jane is an important one. As a male Benjamin was able to educate himself, rise to wealth, and become one of the most intelligent, most revered figures of the era. Scores of book have been written about his life. In contrast, Jane received a brief and superficial education, lived in poverty for most of her life, and is one of the millions of common people usually not deemed worthy of historical consideration.
In many ways this book reminds me of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's A Midwife's Tale in that it uses archival material to highlight the lives of an everyday sort of person.
The book contains about 200 pages of notes and appendices. I wish that I had flipped through the book before I had started reading so that I would have read the end notes as I went along.
If you're looking for an easy story about Benajmin Franklin's sister, you may be a bit disappointed. But if you're looking to read a good social history with some commentary on gender and education, fiction and nonfiction, and historiography, then you're in for a treat.
In many ways this book reminds me of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's A Midwife's Tale in that it uses archival material to highlight the lives of an everyday sort of person.
The book contains about 200 pages of notes and appendices. I wish that I had flipped through the book before I had started reading so that I would have read the end notes as I went along.
If you're looking for an easy story about Benajmin Franklin's sister, you may be a bit disappointed. But if you're looking to read a good social history with some commentary on gender and education, fiction and nonfiction, and historiography, then you're in for a treat.
May 5, 2018
Benjamin Franklin once wrote that "One Half of the World does not know how the other Half lives," and Jill Lepore seeks to correct that by elucidating the world of Franklin's youngest and favorite sister, Jane. Lepore's work, named after Jane's homemade, handwritten record book that accounts the birth and death dates of those in her family, is an artful historical and literary treatment that simultaneously highlights and challenges the blanks in the historical archival. Some readers may be frustrated by the limited number of concrete facts about Jane Franklin that Lepore can point to in a work billed as a biography of Jane Franklin, but part of Lepore's purpose is pointing out the broader implications of these silences. By naming the book "Book of Ages" Lepore brings attention to what the conventional archive tells us about uneducated, middling women in colonial America: their lives involved the births, care, and deaths of their children, and also the deaths of their husbands and family members. Lepore successfully moves beyond the focus on suffering to offer a picture of Jane as a dedicated wife, loving mother, and quick-witted and honest sister. Despite the archive, Lepore resurrects the opinions of Jane Franklin. A juxtapositional history of Ben and Jane Franklin and also a survey of what was deemed "history" based on when and who you were talking about during the early modern era, Jill Lepore's Book of Ages is a well researched history about an obscure figure that also happens to be a well-written and engrossing book.
January 14, 2014
While I was reading Jill Lepore's stunning and absorbing "Book of Ages," I happened across an old interview from the Washington Post in the 1990s with the author Jonathan Raban and was struck by a remark he made about the differences between American nonfiction and British nonfiction: He said American nonfiction lacked imagination; that (paraphrasing here) American writers had become so careful about fact and scholarship that their nonfiction books lacked (if I take his meaning) surprise, lift, some ineffable sense of magic.
"Book of Ages" has all that. It is nothing short of a wonder what Lepore has done here, working with the barest scraps of evidence of Jane Franklin's interior life and building it out into a story about America in the 18th century. (And her commitment to fact and scholarship is very much intact -- the notes and details at the back are just as amazing as the story.) I absolutely loved this book, and ached as Jane mourned just about everyone she knew and loved in her long and forthright life. It reads like a novel because Lepore worked so hard to get it just right, knowing that she would be working _with_ the lack of information as well as _against_ it. I hope the rest of the books I'll be reading in 2014 will be half as good as this one. Just marvelous.
"Book of Ages" has all that. It is nothing short of a wonder what Lepore has done here, working with the barest scraps of evidence of Jane Franklin's interior life and building it out into a story about America in the 18th century. (And her commitment to fact and scholarship is very much intact -- the notes and details at the back are just as amazing as the story.) I absolutely loved this book, and ached as Jane mourned just about everyone she knew and loved in her long and forthright life. It reads like a novel because Lepore worked so hard to get it just right, knowing that she would be working _with_ the lack of information as well as _against_ it. I hope the rest of the books I'll be reading in 2014 will be half as good as this one. Just marvelous.
January 30, 2014
This is a great history of a hitherto obscure person: Jane Franklin Mecom, the younger sister of Benjamin Franklin. Did you know that the great Doctor Franklin exchanged more letters with his sister Jane than any other person? She could read, and did voraciously, but could write but poorly. She mothered 12 children, and outlived them all save one. She was displaced by the British occupation of Boston, struggled with a debtor of a husband, but endured it all with some grace. When, as an woman in her 70s, she read Richard Price's "Four Dissertations," she read something that in the words of author Jill Lepore showed Jane Mecom that "no one dies for naught." "Thousands of Boyles, Clarks and Newtons," Price wrote, "have probably been lost to the world, and lived and died in ignorance and meanness, merely for want of being placed in favourable situations, and enjoying proper advantaged."
This struck to the core of Jane's soul. She wrote to her brother: "Very few we know is Able to beat thro all Impedements and Arive to any Grat Degre of superiority in Understanding."
In historian Jill Lepore's hands, this material, this woman really comes alive.
This struck to the core of Jane's soul. She wrote to her brother: "Very few we know is Able to beat thro all Impedements and Arive to any Grat Degre of superiority in Understanding."
In historian Jill Lepore's hands, this material, this woman really comes alive.
October 10, 2022
Ben Franklin got around, and he had paparazzi problems of his own. He was a Man of the Times, and lived a Big Life. Unlike many of his peers, his best friends weren't close, and his wife was not his favorite human. His oldest son, the one who would carry on his name and much of his work, wasn't either. Who was his favorite human? His youngest sister Jane. She was the homebody to his everywhere-elsebody. They wrote often, exchanging ideas and trying out concepts on each other. Many of the quotes and ideas people think came from Ben, really came from Jane.
This was a slower, fuller read, with a feeling of reported research, but the information it was gifting the reader was interesting, and in my case - welcome. That was precisely why it landed on my list. I'm always looking for that woman behind the man, and in this case was tickled that it was a sister, friend and confidant.
This was a slower, fuller read, with a feeling of reported research, but the information it was gifting the reader was interesting, and in my case - welcome. That was precisely why it landed on my list. I'm always looking for that woman behind the man, and in this case was tickled that it was a sister, friend and confidant.
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January 19, 2020Jane Franklin was Benjamin Franklin's dearly loved sister. At certain points Lepore draws parallels between Jane's life and that of the sister Virginia Woolf imagined for Shakespeare-- a life limited by misogyny and a woeful lack of opportunity, completely dependent on the men in her life. In Jane's case, that meant upon her feckless husband. Although there is evidence of Ben Franklin's regard for his sister (letters etc) he didn't do much to improve her lot. The Book of Ages refers to a book Jane fashioned to mark important dates in her family's life and occasional observations. Meticulously researched, the book sheds light on the period and on Franklin as well as on his sister. I especially liked that Lepore used the precise spellings and idioms used by Jane-- you can see her intellect and spirit coming through the lack of education.
January 4, 2015
I just finished reading Jill Lepore's *Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin*, and I can't recommend it enough. Lepore does amazing work piecing together not only a biography from vanishingly small, scattered evidence, but also a meditation of the nature of historical documentation and the place in it of the unfamous, especially those unfamous who are women. She writes in the first appendix, "But I decided, in the end, to write a biography, a book meant not only as a life of Jane Franklin Mecom but, more, as a meditation on silence in the archives." Lepore's skill at resurrecting a voice and a vital character, long silent, is worthy of very great praise.
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