Review: "Book of Ages - The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin" by Jill Lepore

This non fictional book is about the life of Jane Franklin, the sister of Benjamin Franklin. Jane and Benjamin were the youngest of ten children and had a close bond. While Benjamin was educated, Jane, as most of the girls of this era, was not. She was taught to read and could write very elementary correspondence. Although not given any kind of formal education, she was intelligent and kept well informed by reading periodicals and anything else she could lay her hands on. She was very interested in politics and discussed her opinions openly with her brother. It is still a mystery as to why he never included her in his auto biography when it was written.

This book was fascinating. Jane led a very hard life. She lost all her children and was survived by only one grandchild although there were many nieces and nephews. She was resourceful and kept a roof over her children’s heads, even though her husband was not much help. She kept plowing ahead and her faith in God helped her thru the difficult periods. She was very close to Benjamin and exchanged many letters with him over their lifetime although few survive. This was an eye opening account of how hard life really was for the average colonial citizen.

Although I found this book very interesting, it is very factual. At times it was a chore to keep reading. If you enjoy reading very detailed literature, you will enjoy this book. It is filled with information on both Jane and Ben Franklin that I hadn’t read before.