Jane Austen and children

"This book ... looks at both the real and the literary children in her life--children seen and unseen (and dead); children as models of behaviour, good and bad; as objects of affection, amusement, usefulness, pity, regret, jealousy, resentment; children in the way; children as excuses; children as heirs. In the process it casts fascinating light on a hitherto largely ignored aspect of her work and the age in which she lived."--Book flap.