This book traces the history of Jane Austen's family from Elizabethan times. The author writes about the various members of her immediate family--her father, her mother, her brothers, James, George, Edward, Henry, Francis and Charles, and her beloved sister, Cassandra. The book also describes the circle of Warren Hastings, and Jane's aunt Mrs. Leigh Perrot, who left her estate to James's son Edward, but who was nearly convicted of stealing and transported to Botany Bay. Readers are shown the contribution each made to Jane Austen's life and art, and the family inheritance that shaped her. Making considerable use of the Austen Papers, George Holbert Tucker has drawn together less well known pieces of information as well as the more familiar biographical details in his intimate portrayal of the Austen family.