Of immense value to scholars, the facsimile letters are also a lovely reminder of the gracious period during which Jane Austen lived. Letter writing was considered an art, and these letters provide a truer portrait of Jane Austen the writer and Jane Austen the woman than the memoirs of her Victorian nieces and nephews ever could. Drawing on her six years of research, Modert is able to make a number of important corrections to R. W. Chapman's Jane Austen's Letters, considered for over 50 years to be definitive. Begun as a self-described "treasure hunt" for a letter Chapman had failed to trace, her quest grew into a full-scale research project. Each facsimile is preceded by a revised classification and dating system that corrects and updates Chapman's "List of Letters"; a discussion of the letter's origin and destination; the present owner and location; and a history of each letter.