Claire Tomalin writes that Jane Austen's father, Reverend George Austen, had an extensive library and 'kept rows and rows of books; one of his bookcases covered sixty-four square feet of wall, and he was always collecting more, not just classics but new ones, from which he read aloud.'[i]

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Tomalin suggests that George Austen's bookshelves were of primary importance in fostering her talent and adds that it is difficult to make a systematic account of her early reading; partly because the 500 volumes in Mr Austen’s library were sold off, and partly because Henry Austen, Austen's brother, in 1817 was 'more concerned to stress her piety and respectability than the eclecticism of her taste.'

Tomalin explains that Henry 'stated in his biographical note that Johnson and Cowper were her
favourite "moral writers", and that she admired Richardson more than Fielding.'[ii]

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Tomalin also reminds us of Austen's knowledge of Shakespeare by the fact that the Bertram

brothers from boyhood read Shakespeare with their father, and Fanny Price often reads to

Lady Bertram out of the volumes of Shakespeare in the drawing room.[iii]

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[i]  Tomalin, Jane Austen: A Life, 30.

[ii] Tomalin, 69.

[iii] Tomalin, 332.