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A review by amycrea
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
3.0
There are parts of this book that I'd give a much higher rating. I love the premise, a kind of real-life version of Virginia Woolf's "Shakespeare's sister" theory. Here the sister is Jane Franklin, the real-life sister of Benjamin Franklin. What might she have become if she'd had access to the same education and opportunities as her brother? We'll never know, because she didn't, and the differences in their two lives are striking.
That said, author Lepore admits it's hard to write a bio of Jane, because there's so little verifiable material. Unfortunately, that means often the book reads more like a bio of Ben, which is not what the book's premise suggests. It might have been better if the author had spent more time comparing and contrasting Jane's life with other women of the time. She briefly mentions Anne Bradstreet, Phyllis Wheatley, and Abigail Adams, and I found myself wishing to read more about them than about Ben.
That said, author Lepore admits it's hard to write a bio of Jane, because there's so little verifiable material. Unfortunately, that means often the book reads more like a bio of Ben, which is not what the book's premise suggests. It might have been better if the author had spent more time comparing and contrasting Jane's life with other women of the time. She briefly mentions Anne Bradstreet, Phyllis Wheatley, and Abigail Adams, and I found myself wishing to read more about them than about Ben.