Review of: Tomalin C. Jane Austen: A Life / Translated from English by A. Deriglazova. M.: Kolibri, Azbuka-Attikus, 2013; Shaitanov I. O. Shakespeare. M.: Molodaya Gvardiya, 2013. (Zhizn’ Zamechatel’nykh Lyudey: ser. biogr.; vol. 1425). Biographies of the two English classic authors, published in Russia in 2013, are reviewed. Jane Austen’s biography (written by C. Tomalin, a well-known English biographer) is the first biography of the popular writer in Russian. A new biography of Shakespeare, written by I. Shaitanov, is viewed as an important step in the Russian Shakespeare’s studies. The biographies’ impact both on the wide reading public and on the Russian scholars is analyzed.