Talking About Jane; by Caroline Austen, Anna Austen Lefroy, James Edward Austen-Leigh, Henry Austen.

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Talking About Jane

by Caroline Austen, Anna Austen Lefroy,

James Edward Austen-Leigh, Henry Austen

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"Talking About Jane is a rare compilation of all four memoirs from Jane Austen's family members.

"It consists of recollections, biographical notes, and preserved letters by Jane's beloved niece Anna Lefroy and favorite brother Henry Austen. Also included are My Aunt Jane Austen. A Memoir, by Jane's niece, and A Memoir of Jane Austen by Jane's nephew James-Edward Austen-Leigh."

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Contents (from book)

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Memoir of Miss Austen

by Henry Austen

Biographical Notice of the Author

by Henry Austen

Recollections of Aunt Jane

by Anna Lefroy

My Aunt Jane Austen. A Memoir

by Caroline Austen

A Memoir of Jane Austen

by James Austen Leigh

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Reviews

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Memoir of Miss Austen

by Henry Austen

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This is not very different from his account of life and memories of his sister, Jane Austen, as given in the previous piece, Jane Austen: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE; (by Henry Austen) (1816).

The introduction to this work discusses thìs, and any differences, thoroughly well, as it does other matters related to accounts of Jane Austen's life by her relatives.

"Henry Austen, in his second, 1833 ‘Memoir’, can only mention as noteworthy the meeting with Germaine de Staël which did not take place, while the introduction to the Prince Regent’s librarian, James Stanier Clarke, becomes significant chiefly as it is transformed into the comic ‘Plan of a Novel’. ... "

" ... As the only son of the eldest branch, James Edward Austen-Leigh assumed the task as a duty and in a spirit of censorship as well as communication. Before him, the public biographical account necessarily derived from Henry Austen’s ‘Notice’ of 1818 or its revision as the 1833 ‘Memoir’ (both printed here), where even Henry, purportedly Jane Austen’s favourite brother, eked out his brief evaluation with lengthy quotation from the views of professional critics. ... "

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"It remains to make a few observations on that which her friends deemed more important, on those endowments which sweetened every hour of their lives. If there be an opinion current in the world that a perfectly amiable temper is not reconcilable to a lively imagination, and a keen relish for wit, such an opinion will be rejected for ever by those who had the happiness of knowing the authoress of the following work. Though the frailties, foibles, and follies of others, could not escape her immediate detection, yet even on their vices did she never trust herself to comment with unkindness. The affectation of candour is not uncommon, but she had no affectation. Faultless herself, as nearly as human nature can be, she always sought, in the faults of others, something to excuse, to forgive, or forget. Where extenuation was impossible, she had a sure refuge in silence. She never uttered either a hasty, a silly, or a severe expression. In short, her temper was as polished as her wit; and no one could be often in her company without feeling a strong desire of obtaining her friendship, and cherishing a hope of having obtained it. She became an authoress entirely from taste and inclination. Neither the hope of fame nor profit mixed with her early motives. It was with extreme difficulty that her friends, whose partiality she suspected, whilst she honoured their judgment, could persuade her to publish her first work. Nay, so persuaded was she that the sale would not repay the expense of publication, that she actually made a reserve from her moderate income to meet the expected loss. She could scarcely believe what she termed her great good fortune, when ‘Sense and Sensibility’ produced a clear profit of about 150l. Few so gifted were so truly unpretending. She regarded the above sum as a prodigious recompense for that which had cost her nothing. Her readers, perhaps, will wonder that such a work produced so little, at a time when some authors have received more guineas than they have written lines. But the public has not been unjust; and our authoress was far from thinking it so. Most gratifying to her was the applause which from time to time reached her ears from those who were competent to discriminate. When ‘Pride and Prejudice’ made its appearance, a gentleman, celebrated for his literary attainments, advised a friend of the authoress to read it, adding, with more point than gallantry, ‘I should like to know who is the author, for it is much too clever to have been written by a woman.’ Still, in spite of such applause, so much did she shrink from notoriety, that no increase of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen. In the bosom of her family she talked of them freely; thankful for praise, open to remark, and submissive to criticism. But in public she turned away from any allusion to the character of an authoress. In proof of this, the following circumstance, otherwise unimportant, is stated. Miss Austen was on a visit in London soon after the publication of ‘Mansfield Park’: a nobleman, personally unknown to her, but who had good reasons for considering her to be the authoress of that work, was desirous of her joining a literary circle at his house. He communicated his wish in the politest manner, through a mutual friend, adding, what his Lordship doubtless thought would be an irresistible inducement, that the celebrated Madame de Staël would be of the party.° Miss Austen immediately declined the invitation. To her truly delicate mind such a display would have given pain instead of pleasure.

"Her power of inventing characters seems to have been intuitive, and almost unlimited. She drew from nature; but, whatever may have been surmised to the contrary, never from individuals. The style of her familiar correspondence was in all respects the same as that of her novels. Every thing came finished from her pen; for on all subjects she had ideas as clear as her expressions were well chosen. It is not too much to say that she never despatched a note or letter unworthy of publication. The following few short extracts from her private correspondence are submitted to the public without apology, as being more truly descriptive of her temper, taste, and feelings, than any thing which the pen of a biographer can produce. The first is a playful defence of herself from a mock charge of having pilfered the manuscripts of a young relation. ‘What should I do, my dearest E., with your manly, vigorous sketches, so full of life and spirit? How could I possibly join them on to a little bit of ivory, two inches wide, on which I work with a brush so fine, as to produce little effect after much labour?’ The remaining extracts are from a letter written a few weeks before her death. ‘My medical attendant is encouraging, and talks of making me quite well. I live chiefly on the sofa, but am allowed to walk from one room to the other. I have been out once in a sedan chair, and am to repeat it, and be promoted to a wheel-chair as the weather serves. On this subject I will only say farther, that my dearest sister, my tender, watchful, indefatigible nurse, has not been made ill by her exertions. As to what I owe to her, and to the anxious affection of all my beloved family on this occasion, I can only cry over it, and pray to God to bless them more and more.’ She next touches with just and gentle animadversion on a subject of domestic disappointment. Of this, the particulars do not concern the public. Yet, in justice to her characteristic sweetness and resignation, the concluding observation of our authoress thereon must not be suppressed. ‘But I am getting too near complaint. It has been the appointment of God, however secondary causes may have operated.’"

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September 15, 2021 - September 15, 2021.

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Biographical Notice of the Author

by Henry Austen

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Jane Austen: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE;

(by Henry Austen) (1816).

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"The very first biographical work on Jane Austen.", says a subtitle. Of course. It was written as a notice, shortly after her funeral, by one of the brothers, one who had encouraged her reading, writing, and publishing.

It's what one would expect from someone close, loving, and mindful of her privacy, and so on. Still, it's invaluable, in a first-hand description and a tribute to someone who was known and read exponentially more over centuries after her time.

One does get first-hand information from reading thus, of course, however closely guarded her privacy, and however sweet and soft her description, well deserved as it must have been - for not even those close and loving can completely cover or falsify the person and the relationships.

So one gets a picture of the youngest daughter of a clergyman in the small village of Steventon, growing up in a large family with five brothers - one younger to her - and a sister, who remained close to the author through her life. The picture is soft, but definite, and corresponds well enough with the impressions we get through her work and her letters.

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"Jane Austen was born on the 16th of December, 1775, at Steventon, in the county of Hampshire. Her father was Rector of the parish upwards of forty years. There he resided, in the conscientious and unassisted discharge of his ministerial duties, until he was turned of seventy years. Then he retired with his wife, our authoress, and her sister, to Bath, for the remainder of his life, a period of about four years. ... "

The place names are familiar to those who have read her letters, of course.

"On the death of her father she removed, with her mother and sister, for a short time, to Southampton, and finally, in 1809, to the pleasant village of Chawton, in the same county. From this place she sent into the world those novels, which by many have been placed on the same shelf as the works of a D'Arblay and an Edgeworth. Some of these novels had been the gradual performances of her previous life. For though in composition she was equally rapid and correct, yet an invincible distrust of her own judgement induced her to withhold her works from the public, till time and many perusals had satisfied her that the charm of recent composition was dissolved."

And to think most of us, familiar with her work betweenover a century to two centuries later after she was gone, have never heard of "... a D'Arblay and an Edgeworth" whom the brother values as he writes this, perhaps not personally as much, but definitely as those then very well established as esteemed autjors. Jane Austen we all have heard of, and most of us read, if at all familiar with English language and literature, and millions who are not, at that, for her work is translated in other languages too - and transcends her time just as it does her country.

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"But the symptoms of a decay, deep and incurable, began to show themselves in the commencement of 1816. Her decline was at first deceitfully slow; and until the spring of this present year, those who knew their happiness to be involved in her existence could not endure to despair. But in the month of May, 1817, it was found advisable that she should be removed to Winchester for the benefit of constant medical aid, which none even then dared to hope would be permanently beneficial. She supported, during two months, all the varying pain, irksomeness, and tedium, attendant on decaying nature, with more than resignation, with a truly elastic cheerfulness. She retained her faculties, her memory, her fancy, her temper, and her affections, warm, clear, and unimpaired, to the last. ... She wrote whilst she could hold a pen, and with a pencil when a pen was become too laborious. The day preceding her death she composed some stanzas replete with fancy and vigour. Her last voluntary speech conveyed thanks to her medical attendant; and to the final question asked of her, purporting to know her wants, she replied, 'I want nothing but death.'

"She expired shortly after, on Friday the 18th of July, 1817, in the arms of her sister, who, as well as the relator of these events, feels too surely that they shall never look upon her like again.

"Jane Austen was buried on the 24th of July, 1817, in the cathedral church of Winchester, which, in the whole catalogue of its mighty dead, does not contain the ashes of a brighter genius or a sincerer Christian."

While one does not question, much less doubt, her values, if one has read anything she wrote, one has to wonder why her brother felt he needed to assert those, to reassure people who might have not known her personally.

Was it doe to the prevailing atmosphere of lingering memories of inquisition not yet a distant memory, coupled with the then still fresh new breezes of renaissance helped by the French revolution, scientific inquiry newly freed from shackles of church, and women being not burnt at stake if suspected of having a mind at all a phenomenon not yet old enough in Europe- or U.S. - to be reassuring enough?

Henry Austen himself, cryptically for those unaware of why, says

"In the present age it is hazardous to mention accomplishments."

He does not elaborate - he was writing a notice of her having passed on, and not expecting posterity to read it, centuries later, unfamiliar with reasons, with the prevalent atmosphere as he wrote. He expected those that read to know and understand, as a matter of course.

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"If there be an opinion current in the world, that perfect placidity of temper is not reconcilable to the most lively imagination, and the keenest relish for wit, such an opinion will be rejected for ever by those who have had the happiness of knowing the authoress of the following works. Though the frailties, foibles, and follies of others could not escape her immediate detection, yet even on their vices did she never trust herself to comment with unkindness. The affectation of candour is not uncommon; but she had no affectation. Faultless herself, as nearly as human nature could be, she always sought, in the faults of others, something to excuse, to forgive or forget. Where extenuation was impossible, she had a sure refuge in silence. She never uttered either a hasty, a silly, or a severe expression. In short, her temper was as polished as her wit. Nor were her manners inferior to her temper. They were of the happiest kind. No one could be often in her company without feeling a strong desire of obtaining her friendship, and cherishing a hope of having obtained it. She was tranquil without reserve or stiffness; and communicative without intrusion or self-sufficiency. She became an authoress entirely from taste and inclination. Neither the hope of fame nor profit mixed with her early motives. Most of her works, as before observed, were composed many years previous to their publication. It was with extreme difficulty that her friends, whose partiality she suspected whilst she honoured their judgement, could prevail on her to publish her first work. Nay, so persuaded was she that its sale would not repay the expense of publication, that she actually made a reserve from her very moderate income to meet the expected loss. She could scarcely believe what she termed her great good fortune when "Sense and Sensibility" produced a clear profit of about £150. Few so gifted were so truly unpretending. She regarded the above sum as a prodigious recompense for that which had cost her nothing. Her readers, perhaps, will wonder that such a work produced so little at a time when some authors have received more guineas than they have written lines. The works of our authoress, however, may live as long as those which have burst on the world with more éclat. But the public has not been unjust; and our authoress was far from thinking it so. Most gratifying to her was the applause which from time to time reached her ears from those who were competent to discriminate. Still, in spite of such applause, so much did she shrink from notoriety, that no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen. ... "

That last sentence is puzzling. While many women then wrote and publ8shed under pen names - male names, since women doing things other than housework, or lowly manual work, if done elsewhere for a living, was seen as abhorrent at worst, or impossible at best, despite Queens having ruled Britain successfully enough, and one in particular (Queen Elizabeth I) having eclipsed most monarchs in her success, still - this author isn't known to have published under any name other than her own! Did she?

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Curiously, he says -

"Her power of inventing characters seems to have been intuitive, and almost unlimited. She drew from nature; but, whatever may have been surmised to the contrary, never from individuals."

One somehow had the impression on the whole that her characters, being so diverse, so very alive, and true across time and space and cultures, were from general observations of society, until one reads her letters. Then two or three things emerge, however veiled by mist.

One, the loving and close relationship between her best known character Elizabeth Bennet and her sister Jane, might have been the unconscious if not conscious regard that Jane Austen paid her own sister Cassandra and the close, loving relationship they shared.

Two, her Northanger Abbey might have been inspired from a small episode in her niece Fanny's life, although the resolution thereof was different - we read the author advise her to forget the excellent young man without independent means, whose father objected to the young woman on grounds of her pecuniary circumstances being not up to the expectations the father had of women he considered eligible for the son.

And finally, the person if not the story, of Mansfield Park, of the loved character of Fanny Price, being probably named after the niece Jane Austen loved and was close to - their being semi-orphaned, for one, and living with close relatives, is somewhat similar, although it's the very righteous, despite her modesty, character of Fanny Price that is now, after reading the letters of Jane Austen, is explained by the love of the author for her niece.

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August 26, 2021 - August 27, 2021.

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Recollections of Aunt Jane

by Anna Lefroy

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ANNA LEFROY ‘Recollections of Aunt Jane’ (1834)

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Very charming, especially after having read Jane Austen's Letters.

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" ... I have intimated that of the two Sisters Aunt Jane was generally the favorite with children, but with the young people of Godmersham it was not so. They liked her indeed as a playfellow, & as a teller of stories, but they were not really fond of her. I believe that their Mother was not; at least that she very much preferred the elder Sister. A little talent went a long way with the Goodneston Bridgeses° of that period; & much must have gone a long way too far. This preference lasted for a good while, nor do I think that there ever was any abatement in the love of that family for Aunt Cassandra. Time however brought, as it always does bring, new impressions or modifications of the old ones. Owing to particular circumstances there grew up during the latter years of Aunt Jane’s life a great & affectionate intimacy between herself & the eldest of her nieces; & I suppose there a [sic] few now living who can more fully appreciate the talent or revere the memory of Aunt Jane than Lady Knatchbull. This has brought me to the period of my own greatest share of intimacy; the two years before my marriage, & the two or three years after, when we lived, as you know almost close to Chawton when the original 17 years between us seemed to shrink to 7—or to nothing. It comes back to me now how strangely I missed her; it had become so much a habit with me to put by things in my mind with a reference to her and to say to myself, ‘I shall keep this for Aunt Jane.’ It was my great amusement during one summer visit at Chawton to procure Novels from a circulating Library at Alton, & after running them over to relate the stories to Aunt Jane. I may say it was her amusement also, as she sat busily stitching away at a work of charity, in which I fear that I took myself no more useful part. Greatly we both enjoyed it, one piece of absurdity leading to another, till Aunt Cassan[dr]a fatigued with her own share of laughter wd. exclaim ‘How can you both be so foolish?’ & beg us to leave off—"

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September 15, 2021 - September 15, 2021.

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My Aunt Jane Austen. A Memoir

by Caroline Austen

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Caroline was very young when her aunt, Jane Austen, passed away, so her memories of the famous aunt are those of a child, and hence the charm. Also, she was the younger daughter of Jane Austen's eldest brother James, and hence grew up in the same home, the rectory at Steventon, where Jane was born and lived until she was twenty five, when the family moved to Bath for a few years, before they moved back to Chawton, which was close enough, that Caroline could visit often enough to have known her aunt Jane Austen well.

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" ... We remember our dead always—but when we shall have joined them their memory may be said to have perished out of the earth, for no distinct idea of them remains behind, and the next generation soon forget that they ever existed—"

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"Since her death, the public voice has placed her in the first rank of the Novellists of her day—given her, I may say, the first place amongst them—and it seems but right that some record should remain with us of her life and character; and that she herself should not be forgotten by her nearest descendants, whilst her writings still live, and are still spreading her fame wherever the English books are read.—Her last long surviving Brother° has recently died at the age of 91 [‘1865’ is in margin]—The generation who knew her is passing away—but those who are succeeding us must feel an interest in the personal character of their Great Aunt, who has made the family name in some small degree, illustrious—For them therefore, and for my own gratification I will try to call back my recollections of what she was, and what manner of life she led—It is not much that I have to tell—for I mean to relate only what I saw and what I thought myself—I was just twelve years old when she died—therefore, I knew her only with a child’s knowledge—

"My first very distinct remembrance of her is in her own home at Chawton—The house belonged to her second Brother, Mr. Knight (of Godmersham & Chawton) and was by him made a comfortable residence for his Mother and sisters—The family party there were, my Grandmother, Mrs. Austen—my two Aunts, her daughters—and a third Aunt of mine—Miss Lloyd, who had made her home with them before I can remember, and who remained their inmate as long as Mrs. Austen lived—"

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"Now, as the remembrance of Chawton Cottage, for so in later years it came to be called, is still pleasant to me—I will assume that those who never knew it, may like to have laid before them, a description of their Aunt’s home—the last that she dwelt in—where, in the maturity of her mind, she completed the works that have given her an English name—where after a few years, whilst still in the prime of life, she began to droop and wither away—the home from whence she removed only in the last stage of her illness, by the persuasion of her friends, hoping against hope—and to which her sister before long had to return alone—

"My Grand Father, Mr. Austen, held for many years, the adjoining Livings of Deane and Steventon—but gave up his duties to his eldest son, and settled at Bath, a very few years before his own death—For a while, his Widow and daughters remained at Bath—then they removed to Southampton—and finally settled in the village of Chawton—

"Mr. Knight had been able to offer his Mother the choice of two houses—one in Kent near to Godmersham—and the other at Chawton—and she and her daughters eventually decided on the Hampshire residence."

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"The front door opened on the road,° a very narrow enclosure of each side, protected the house from the possible shock of any runaway vehicle—A good sized entrance, and two parlours, called dining and drawing room, made the length of the house; all intended originally to look on the road—but the large drawing room window was blocked-up and turned into a bookcase when Mrs. Austen took possession and another was opened at the side, which gave to view only turf and trees—A high wooden fence shut out the road (the Winchester road it was) all the length of the little domain, and trees were planted inside to form a shrubbery walk—which carried round the enclosure, gave a very sufficient space for exercise—you did not feel cramped for room; and there was a pleasant irregular mixture of hedgerow, and grass, and gravel walk and long grass for mowing, and orchard—which I imagine arose from two or three little enclosures having been thrown together, and arranged as best might be, for ladies’ occupation—There was besides a good kitchen garden, large court and many out-buildings, not much occupied—and all this affluence of space was very delightful to children, and I have no doubt added considerably to the pleasure of a visit—

"Everything indoors and out was well kept—the house was well furnished, and it was altogether a comfortable and ladylike establishment, tho’ I beleive the means which supported it, were but small—

"The house was quite as good as the generality of Parsonage houses then—and much in the same old style—the ceilings low and roughly finished—some bedrooms very small—none very large but in number sufficient to accomodate the inmates, and several guests—

"The dining room could not be made to look anywhere but on the road—and there my Grandmother often sat for an hour or two in the morning, with her work or her writing—cheered by its sunny aspect, and by the stirring scene it afforded her."

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" ... My visits to Chawton were frequent—I cannot tell when they began—they were very pleasant to me—and Aunt Jane was the great charm—As a very little girl, I was always creeping up to her, and following her whenever I could, in the house and out of it—I might not have remembered this, but for the recollection of my Mother’s telling me privately, I must not be troublesome to my Aunt—

"Her charm to children was great sweetness of manner—she seemed to love you, and you loved her naturally in return—This as well as I can now recollect and analyse, was what I felt in my earliest days, before I was old enough to be amused by her cleverness—But soon came the delight of her playful talk—Everything she could make amusing to a child—Then, as I got older, and when cousins came to share the entertainment, she would tell us the most delightful stories chiefly of Fairyland, and her Fairies had all characters of their own—The tale was invented, I am sure, at the moment, and was sometimes continued for 2 or 3 days, if occasion served—

"As to my Aunt’s personal appearance, her’s was the first face that I can remember thinking pretty, not that I used that word to myself, but I know I looked at her with admiration—Her face was rather round than long—she had a bright, but not a pink colour—a clear brown complexion and very good hazle eyes—She was not, I beleive, an absolute beauty, but before she left Steventon she was established as a very pretty girl, in the opinion of most of her neighbours—as I learnt afterwards from some of those who still remained—Her hair, a darkish brown, curled naturally—it was in short curls round her face (for then ringlets were not.) She always wore a cap—Such was the custom with ladies who were not quite young—at least of a morning but I never saw her without one, to the best of my remembrance, either morning or evening."

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"Of the two, Aunt Jane was by far my favourite—I did not dislike Aunt Cassandra—but if my visit had at any time chanced to fall out during her absence, I don’t think I should have missed her—whereas, not to have found Aunt Jane at Chawton, would have been a blank indeed!

"As I grew older, I met with young companions at my Grandmother’s—Of Capt. Charles Austen’s motherless girls, one the eldest, Cassy—lived there chiefly, for a time—under the especial tutorage of Aunt Cassandra; and then Chawton House was for a while inhabited by Capt. Frank Austen; and he had many children°—I beleive we were all of us, according to our different ages and natures, very fond of our Aunt Jane—and that we ever retained a strong impression of the pleasantness of Chawton life—One of my cousins,° now long since dead, after he was grown up, used occasionally to go and see Aunt Cassa.—then left sole inmate of the old house—and he told me once, that his visits were always a disappointment to him—for that he could not help expecting to feel particularly happy at Chawton and never till he got there, could he fully realise to himself how all its peculiar pleasures were gone—

"In the time of my childhood, it was a cheerful house—my Uncles, one or another, frequently coming for a few days; and they were all pleasant in their own family—I have thought since, after having seen more of other households, wonderfully, as the family talk had much of spirit and vivacity, and it was never troubled by disagreements as it was not their habit to argue with each other—There always was perfect harmony amongst the brothers and sisters ..."

"Aunt Jane began her day with music—for which I conclude she had a natural taste; as she thus kept it up—tho’ she had no one to teach; was never induced (as I have heard) to play in company; and none of her family cared much for it. I suppose, that she might not trouble them, she chose her practising time before breakfast—when she could have the room to herself—She practised regularly every morning—She played very pretty tunes, I thought—and I liked to stand by her and listen to them; but the music, (for I knew the books well in after years) would now be thought disgracefully easy—Much that she played from was manuscript, copied out by herself—and so neatly and correctly, that it was as easy to read as print—"

"I don’t beleive Aunt Jane observed any particular method in parcelling out her day but I think she generally sat in the drawing room till luncheon: when visitors were there, chiefly at work°—She was fond of work—and she was a great adept at overcast and satin stitch—the peculiar delight of that day—General handiness and neatness were amongst her characteristics— ... "

"After luncheon, my Aunts generally walked out—sometimes they went to Alton for shopping—Often, one or the other of them, to the Great House—as it was then called—when a brother was inhabiting it, to make a visit—or if the house were standing empty they liked to stroll about the grounds—sometimes to Chawton Park—a noble beech wood, just within a walk—but sometimes, but that was rarely, to call on a neighbour—They had no carriage, and their visitings did not extend far—there were a few familities [sic] living in the village—but no great intimacy was kept up with any of them—they were upon friendly but rather distant terms, with all—Yet I am sure my Aunt Jane had a regard for her neighbours and felt a kindly interest in their proceedings. She liked immensely to hear all about them. They sometimes served for her amusement, but it was her own nonsense that gave zest to the gossip—She never turned them into ridicule—She was as far as possible from being either censorious or satirical ... "

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"A very warm admirer of my Aunt’s writing but a stranger in England, lately made the observation that it would be most interesting to know what had been Miss Austen’s opinions on the great public events of her time—a period as she rightly observed, of the greatest interest—for my Aunt must have been a young woman, able to think, at the time of the French Revolution & the long disastrous chapter then begun, was closed by the battle of Waterloo, two years before her death—anyone might naturally desire to know what part such a mind as her’s had taken in the great strifes of war and policy which so disquieted Europe for more than 20 years—and yet, it was a question that had never before presented itself to me—and tho’ I have now retraced my steps on this track, I have found absolutely nothing!—"

" ... Of her historical opinions I am able to record thus much—that she was a most loyal adherent of Charles the 1st, and that she always encouraged my youthful beleif in Mary Stuart’s perfect innocence of all the crimes with which History has charged her memory—°"

"As I grew older, she would talk to me more seriously of my reading, and of my amusements—I had taken early to writing verses and stories, and I am sorry to think how I troubled her with reading them. She was very kind about it, and always had some praise to bestow but at last she warned me against spending too much time upon them—She said—how well I recollect it! that she knew writing stories was a great amusement, and she thought a harmless one—tho’ many people, she was aware, thought otherwise—but that at my age it would be bad for me to be much taken up with my own compositions—Later still—it was after she got to Winchester, she sent me a message to this effect—That if I would take her advice, I should cease writing° till I was 16, and that she had herself often wished she had read more, and written less, in the corresponding years of her own life."

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"Two of the great Physicians° of the day had attended my Uncle during his illness—I am not, at this distance of time, sufficiently sure which they were, as to give their names, but one of them had very intimate access to the Prince Regent, and continuing his visits during my Uncle’s recovery, he told my Aunt one day, that the Prince was a great admirer of her Novels: that he often read them, and had a set in each of his residences—That he, the physician had told his Royal Highness that Miss Austen was now in London, and that by the Prince’s desire, Mr. Clarke, the Librarian of Carlton House, would speedily wait upon her—

"Mr. Clarke came, and endorsed all previous compliments, and invited my Aunt to see Carlton House, saying the Prince had charged him to show her the Library there, adding many civilities as to the pleasure his R.H. had received from her Novels—Three had then been published—The invitation could not be declined—and my Aunt went, at an appointed time, to Carlton House—

"She saw the Library, and I beleive some other apartments, but the particulars of her visit, if I ever heard them, I have now forgotten—only this, I do well recollect—that in the course of it, Mr. Clarke, speaking again of the Regent’s admiration of her writing, declared himself charged to say, that if Miss Austen had any other Novel forthcoming, she was quite at liberty to dedicate it to the Prince.

"My Aunt made all proper acknowledgments at the moment, but had no intention of accepting the honor offered—until she was avised [sic] by some of her friends that she must consider the permission as a command—

"Emma was then in the Publisher’s hands—so a few lines of dedication were affixed to the 1st volume, and following still the instructions of the well informed she sent a Copy, handsomely bound, to Carlton House—and I suppose it was duly acknowledged by Mr. Clarke—

"My Aunt soon after her visit to him, returned home, where the little adventure was talked of for a while with some interest, and afforded some amusement°—In the following Spring, Mr. Henry Austen ceased to reside in London, and my Aunt was never brought so near the precints of the Court again—nor did she ever try to recall herself to the recollection of Physician, Librarian or Prince, and so ended this little burst of Royal Patronage."

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"In my later visits to Chawton Cottage, I remember Aunt Jane used often to lie down after dinner—My Grandmother herself was frequently on the sofa—sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes in the evening, at no fixed period of the day,—She had not bad health for her age, and she worked often for hours in the garden, and naturally wanted rest afterwards—There was only one sofa in the room—and Aunt Jane laid upon 3 chairs which she arranged for herself—I think she had a pillow, but it never looked comfortable—She called it her sofa, and even when the other was unoccupied, she never took it—It seemed understood that she preferred the chairs—

"I wondered and wondered—for the real sofa was frequently vacant, and still she laid in this comfortless manner—I often asked her how she could like the chairs best—and I suppose I worried her into telling me the reason of her choice—which was, that if she ever used the sofa, Grandmama would be leaving it for her, and would not lie down, as she did now, whenever she felt inclined—"

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"I need scarcely say she was dearly loved by her family—Her Brothers were very proud of her—Her literary fame, at the close of her life, was only just spreading—but they were proud of her talents, which they even then estimated highly— ... "

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September 15, 2021 - September 16, 2021.

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A Memoir of Jane Austen

by James Austen Leigh

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MEMOIR OF JANE AUSTEN

(by James Edward Austen-Leigh) (1871)

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This is a most satisfactory account to read of life and memories of Jane Austen, written and compiled as it is by a loving nephew with memories of his aunt, her home, and intimate knowledge of the family, with painstaking compilation that reminds one of perfection of her own writings.

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The previous biographical work, JANE AUSTEN (by Samuel Stillman Conant) (1870), included in the compilation

Jane Austen: Complete Works

+ Extras - 83 titles

(Annotated and illustrated)

by Jane Austen.

Published April 21st 2013

by Bourville Publishing,

seems to be extracted, almost entirely, from various chapters of this memoir by her nephew!

Almost the only original contribution made by Conant to this collection of excerpts, not necessarily following the order from the original book, is the observation he makes about the brothers being all married - some more than once - and having children, while the two sisters never married.

This memoir that Conant draws from, on the other hand - and the one previous to Conant's (in this collection of works of Jane Austen), BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE (by Henry Austen) (1816), for that matter - assert the devout, religious, specifically, Christian values, and firm faith, of the sisters, repeatedly.

Since the father and two of the brothers were clergymen, it all makes one wonder, did that affect the daughters into remaining unmarried, and was it their being virginal through their lives that made the brothers retain respect for them, in addition to which they - the sisters - being the ones to care for the parents? And if so, what does that say about their attitude towards women who married, and had large families, such as their mother and wives? Or were those women supposed, firmly, to be merely carrying a duty, unpleasant to them since they were virtuous, Christian women, who couldn't possibly be imagined to feel anything but suffering in course of such duty?

Did this free them, and others like them, to have comfort in their roles in empire building as merely carrying out an unpleasant duty, in not only killings of hapless "natives", but very associating with them, in any way?

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"The memoir of my aunt, Jane Austen, has been received with more favour than I had ventured to expect. The notices taken of it in the periodical press, as well as letters addressed to me by many with whom I am not personally acquainted, show that an unabated interest is still taken in every particular that can be told about her. I am thus encouraged not only to offer a second edition of the memoir, but also to enlarge it with some additional matter which I might have scrupled to intrude on the public if they had not thus seemed to call for it. In the present edition, the narrative is somewhat enlarged, and a few more letters are added; with a short specimen of her childish stories. The cancelled chapter of 'Persuasion' is given, in compliance with wishes both publicly and privately expressed. A fragment of a story entitled 'The Watsons' is printed; and extracts are given from a novel which she had begun a few months before her death; but the chief addition is a short tale never before published, called 'Lady Susan.' I regret that the little which I have been able to add could not appear in my first edition; as much of it was either unknown to me, or not at my command, when I first published; and I hope that I may claim some indulgent allowance for the difficulty of recovering little facts and feelings which had been merged half a century deep in oblivion.

"November 17, 1870."

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"Mr. George Austen had lost both his parents before he was nine years old. He inherited no property from them; but was happy in having a kind uncle, Mr. Francis Austen, a successful lawyer at Tunbridge, the ancestor of the Austens of Kippington, who, though he had children of his own, yet made liberal provision for his orphan nephew. The boy received a good education at Tunbridge School, whence he obtained a scholarship, and subsequently a fellowship, at St. John's College, Oxford. In 1764 he came into possession of the two adjoining Rectories of Deane and Steventon in Hampshire; the former purchased for him by his generous uncle Francis, the latter given by his cousin Mr. Knight. This was no very gross case of plurality, according to the ideas of that time, for the two villages were little more than a mile apart, and their united populations scarcely amounted to three hundred. In the same year he married Cassandra, youngest daughter of the Rev. Thomas Leigh, of the family of Leighs of Warwickshire, who, having been a fellow of All Souls, held the College living of Harpsden, near Henley-upon-Thames. Mr. Thomas Leigh was a younger brother of Dr. Theophilus Leigh, a personage well known at Oxford in his day, and his day was not a short one, for he lived to be ninety, and held the Mastership of Balliol College for above half a century. He was a man more famous for his sayings than his doings, overflowing with puns and witticisms and sharp retorts; but his most serious joke was his practical one of living much longer than had been expected or intended. He was a fellow of Corpus, and the story is that the Balliol men, unable to agree in electing one of their own number to the Mastership, chose him, partly under the idea that he was in weak health and likely soon to cause another vacancy. It was afterwards said that his long incumbency had been a judgment on the society for having elected an Out-College Man. ... "

" ... I do not know from what common ancestor the Master of Balliol and his great-niece Jane Austen, with some others of the family, may have derived the keen sense of humour which they certainly possessed."

"Mr. and Mrs. George Austen resided first at Deane, but removed in 1771 to Steventon, which was their residence for about thirty years. They commenced their married life with the charge of a little child, a son of the celebrated Warren Hastings, who had been committed to the care of Mr. Austen before his marriage, probably through the influence of his sister, Mrs. Hancock, whose husband at that time held some office under Hastings in India. Mr. Gleig, in his 'Life of Hastings,' says that his son George, the offspring of his first marriage, was sent to England in 1761 for his education, but that he had never been able to ascertain to whom this precious charge was entrusted, nor what became of him. I am able to state, from family tradition, that he died young, of what was then called putrid sore throat; and that Mrs. Austen had become so much attached to him that she always declared that his death had been as great a grief to her as if he had been a child of her own.""

"Attention has lately been called by a celebrated writer to the inferiority of the clergy to the laity of England two centuries ago. The charge no doubt is true, if the rural clergy are to be compared with that higher section of country gentlemen who went into parliament, and mixed in London society, and took the lead in their several counties; but it might be found less true if they were to be compared, as in all fairness they ought to be, with that lower section with whom they usually associated. The smaller landed proprietors, who seldom went farther from home than their county town, from the squire with his thousand acres to the yeoman who cultivated his hereditary property of one or two hundred, then formed a numerous class —each the aristocrat of his own parish; and there was probably a greater difference in manners and refinement between this class and that immediately above them than could now be found between any two persons who rank as gentlemen. For in the progress of civilisation, though all orders may make some progress, yet it is most perceptible in the lower. It is a process of 'levelling up;' the rear rank 'dressing up,' as it were, close to the front rank. When Hamlet mentions, as something which he had 'for three years taken note of,' that 'the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier,' it was probably intended by Shakespeare as a satire on his own times; but it expressed a principle which is working at all times in which society makes any progress. I believe that a century ago the improvement in most country parishes began with the clergy; and that in those days a rector who chanced to be a gentleman and a scholar found himself superior to his chief parishioners in information and manners, and became a sort of centre of refinement and politeness."

" ... Being a good scholar he was able to prepare two of his sons for the university, and to direct the studies of his other children, whether sons or daughters, as well as to increase his income by taking pupils."

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"But dearest of all to the heart of Jane was her sister Cassandra, about three years her senior. Their sisterly affection for each other could scarcely be exceeded. Perhaps it began on Jane's side with the feeling of deference natural to a loving child towards a kind elder sister. Something of this feeling always remained; and even in the maturity of her powers, and in the enjoyment of increasing success, she would still speak of Cassandra as of one wiser and better than herself. In childhood, when the elder was sent to the school of a Mrs. Latournelle, in the Forbury at Reading, the younger went with her, not because she was thought old enough to profit much by the instruction there imparted, but because she would have been miserable without her sister; her mother observing that 'if Cassandra were going to have her head cut off, Jane would insist on sharing her fate.' This attachment was never interrupted or weakened. They lived in the same home, and shared the same bed-room, till separated by death. They were not exactly alike. Cassandra's was the colder and calmer disposition; she was always prudent and well judging, but with less outward demonstration of feeling and less sunniness of temper than Jane possessed. It was remarked in her family that 'Cassandra had the merit of having her temper always under command, but that Jane had the happiness of a temper that never required to be commanded.' When 'Sense and Sensibility' came out, some persons, who knew the family slightly, surmised that the two elder Miss Dashwoods were intended by the author for her sister and herself; but this could not be the case. Cassandra's character might indeed represent the 'sense' of Elinor, but Jane's had little in common with the 'sensibility' of Marianne. The young woman who, before the age of twenty, could so clearly discern the failings of Marianne Dashwood, could hardly have been subject to them herself."

No, it's quite clear that the two sisters are mirrored by Jane Austen in the two eldest Bennet sisters, Jane and Elizabeth Bennet. And further, she gave her own name to the elder, beautiful one, while taking the name Elizabeth for the younger one whom she is more like, going by her writings.

" ... There was so much that was agreeable and attractive in this family party that its members may be excused if they were inclined to live somewhat too exclusively within it. They might see in each other much to love and esteem, and something to admire. The family talk had abundance of spirit and vivacity, and was never troubled by disagreements even in little matters, for it was not their habit to dispute or argue with each other: above all, there was strong family affection and firm union, never to be broken but by death. It cannot be doubted that all this had its influence on the author in the construction of her stories, in which a family party usually supplies the narrow stage, while the interest is made to revolve round a few actors."

" ... Her acquaintance, in fact, constituted the very class from which she took her imaginary characters, ranging from the Member of Parliament, or large landed proprietor, to the young curate or younger midshipman of equally good family; ... "

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"The family lived in close intimacy with two cousins, Edward and Jane Cooper, the children of Mrs. Austen's eldest sister, and Dr. Cooper, the Vicar of Sonning, near Reading. The Coopers lived for some years at Bath, which seems to have been much frequented in those days by clergymen retiring from work. I believe that Cassandra and Jane sometimes visited them there, and that Jane thus acquired the intimate knowledge of the topography and customs of Bath, which enabled her to write 'Northanger Abbey' long before she resided there herself. After the death of their own parents, the two young Coopers paid long visits at Steventon. Edward Cooper did not live undistinguished. When an undergraduate at Oxford, he gained the prize for Latin hexameters on 'Hortus Anglicus' in 1791; and in later life he was known by a work on prophecy, called 'The Crisis,' and other religious publications, especially for several volumes of sermons, much preached in many pulpits in my youth. Jane Cooper was married from her uncle's house at Steventon, to captain, afterwards Sir Thomas Williams, under whom Charles Austen served in several ships. She was a dear friend of her namesake, but was fated to become a cause of great sorrow to her, for a few years after the marriage she was suddenly killed by an accident to her carriage."

"There was another cousin closely associated with them at Steventon, who must have introduced greater variety into the family circle. This was the daughter of Mr. Austen's only sister, Mrs. Hancock. This cousin had been educated in Paris, and married to a Count de Feuillade, of whom I know little more than that he perished by the guillotine during the French Revolution. Perhaps his chief offence was his rank; but it was said that the charge of 'incivism,' under which he suffered, rested on the fact of his having laid down some arable land into pasture —a sure sign of his intention to embarrass the Republican Government by producing a famine! His wife escaped through dangers and difficulties to England, was received for some time into her uncle's family, and finally married her cousin Henry Austen. During the short peace of Amiens, she and her second husband went to France, in the hope of recovering some of the count's property, and there narrowly escaped being included amongst the detenus. Orders had been given by Buonaparte's government to detain all English travellers, but at the post-houses Mrs. Henry Austen gave the necessary orders herself, and her French was so perfect that she passed everywhere for a native, and her husband escaped under this protection.

"She was a clever woman, and highly accomplished, after the French rather than the English mode; and in those days, when intercourse with the continent was long interrupted by war, such an element in the society of a country parsonage must have been a rare acquisition. The sisters may have been more indebted to this cousin than to Mrs. La Tournelle's teaching for the considerable knowledge of French which they possessed. She also took the principal parts in the private theatricals in which the family several times indulged, having their summer theatre in the barn, and their winter one within the narrow limits of the dining-room, where the number of the audience must have been very limited. On these occasions, the prologues and epilogues were written by Jane's eldest brother, and some of them are very vigorous and amusing. Jane was only twelve years old at the time of the earliest of these representations, and not more than fifteen when the last took place. She was, however, an early observer, and it may be reasonably supposed that some of the incidents and feelings which are so vividly painted in the Mansfield Park theatricals are due to her recollections of these entertainments."

That being so, how does one interpret the attitude of moral disapproval of Mansfield Park regarding such activities? True, it was the uncle of Fanny Price who disapproved, but she adhered to this, as a matter of principle, from his being the head of household, and as per her morals, it being a duty to obey him; so was this the state of affairs in the Austen household? Was there a counterpart, perhaps the Digweeds or some relatives of theirs visiting, reflected in the brother and sister pair in Mansfield Park as those after marrying Edward and Fanny?

"Some time before they left Steventon, one great affliction came upon the family. Cassandra was engaged to be married to a young clergyman. He had not sufficient private fortune to permit an immediate union; but the engagement was not likely to be a hopeless or a protracted one, for he had a prospect of early preferment from a nobleman with whom he was connected both by birth and by personal friendship. He accompanied this friend to the West Indies, as chaplain to his regiment, and there died of yellow fever, to the great concern of his friend and patron, who afterwards declared that, if he had known of the engagement, he would not have permitted him to go out to such a climate. This little domestic tragedy caused great and lasting grief to the principal sufferer, and could not but cast a gloom over the whole party. The sympathy of Jane was probably, from her age, and her peculiar attachment to her sister, the deepest of all."

This is reflected in Mansfield Park in the death of the heir in the household, turning Edward into the heir. The manner of death of the elder son of the family, a first cousin of Fanny Price, is a journey to West Indies causing an illness; and Jane Austen here has subtly, obliquely, indicated more, via a sketchbook of this cousinthat horrified Fanny Price.

" ... She did not indeed pass through life without being the object of warm affection. In her youth she had declined the addresses of a gentleman who had the recommendations of good character, and connections, and position in life, of everything, in fact, except the subtle power of touching her heart. There is, however, one passage of romance in her history with which I am imperfectly acquainted, and to which I am unable to assign name, or date, or place, though I have it on sufficient authority. Many years after her death, some circumstances induced her sister Cassandra to break through her habitual reticence, and to speak of it. She said that, while staying at some seaside place, they became acquainted with a gentleman, whose charm of person, mind, and manners was such that Cassandra thought him worthy to possess and likely to win her sister's love. When they parted, he expressed his intention of soon seeing them again; and Cassandra felt no doubt as to his motives. But they never again met. Within a short time they heard of his sudden death. I believe that, if Jane ever loved, it was this unnamed gentleman; but the acquaintance had been short, and I am unable to say whether her feelings were of such a nature as to affect her happiness."

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" ... There is no doubt that if we could look into the households of the clergy and the small gentry of that period, we should see some things which would seem strange to us, and should miss many more to which we are accustomed. Every hundred years, and especially a century like the last, marked by an extraordinary advance in wealth, luxury, and refinement of taste, as well as in the mechanical arts which embellish our houses, must produce a great change in their aspect. ... "

"Important inventions, such as the applications of steam, gas, and electricity, may find their places in history; but not so the alterations, great as they may be, which have taken place in the appearance of our dining and drawing-rooms. ... "

"There must have been more dancing throughout the country in those days than there is now: and it seems to have sprung up more spontaneously, as if it were a natural production, with less fastidiousness as to the quality of music, lights, and floor. Many country towns had a monthly ball throughout the winter, in some of which the same apartment served for dancing and tea-room. Dinner parties more frequently ended with an extempore dance on the carpet, to the music of a harpsichord in the house, or a fiddle from the village. This was always supposed to be for the entertainment of the young people, but many, who had little pretension to youth, were very ready to join in it. There can be no doubt that Jane herself enjoyed dancing, for she attributes this taste to her favourite heroines; in most of her works, a ball or a private dance is mentioned, and made of importance.

"Many things connected with the ball-rooms of those days have now passed into oblivion. The barbarous law which confined the lady to one partner throughout the evening must indeed have been abolished before Jane went to balls. It must be observed, however, that this custom was in one respect advantageous to the gentleman, inasmuch as it rendered his duties more practicable. He was bound to call upon his partner the next morning, and it must have been convenient to have only one lady for whom he was obliged—

"To gallop all the country over,

"The last night's partner to behold,

"And humbly hope she caught no cold."

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"I am tempted to add a little about the difference of personal habits. It may be asserted as a general truth, that less was left to the charge and discretion of servants, and more was done, or superintended, by the masters and mistresses. With regard to the mistresses, it is, I believe, generally understood, that at the time to which I refer, a hundred years ago, they took a personal part in the higher branches of cookery, as well as in the concoction of home-made wines, and distilling of herbs for domestic medicines, which are nearly allied to the same art. Ladies did not disdain to spin the thread of which the household linen was woven. Some ladies liked to wash with their own hands their choice china after breakfast or tea. In one of my earliest child's books, a little girl, the daughter of a gentleman, is taught by her mother to make her own bed before leaving her chamber. It was not so much that they had not servants to do all these things for them, as that they took an interest in such occupations. And it must be borne in mind how many sources of interest enjoyed by this generation were then closed, or very scantily opened to ladies. A very small minority of them cared much for literature or science. Music was not a very common, and drawing was a still rarer, accomplishment; needlework, in some form or other, was their chief sedentary employment."

The author mentions the corresponding difference in gentlemen's occupations during his era and earlier, but it must have been much more; for the era when women of the household were keeping their hand in supervision and major work in kitchen, and more, gentlemen were doing so in farms and stables, in supervision and major works if not in every manual bit of work. He mentions some of it, but there was likely much more.

"Up to the beginning of the present century, poor women found profitable employment in spinning flax or wool. This was a better occupation for them than straw plaiting, inasmuch as it was carried on at the family hearth, and did not admit of gadding and gossiping about the village. ... "

"It may be observed that this hand-spinning is the most primitive of female accomplishments, and can be traced back to the earliest times. ... "

What makes the author assume it was strictly female accomplishment? It's probably only that, as women took it up and showed their competence, misogyny of Europe - and of abrahmic cultures in general - had males disdain doing it, and see with contempt, the occupation they had been at.

" ... The term 'spinster' still testifies to its having been the ordinary employment of the English young woman. ... "

Accompanied, needless to say, with great amount of negativity, something that does not stick to the word bachelor- usually reserved for males - however old, feeble, poor, or worse. Indeed, one can only think of Queen Elizabeth I who escaped so pejorative an epithet, or perhaps another one or two women such as Jean D'Arc, Bernadette of Lourdes, et al.

" ... It was the labour assigned to the ejected nuns by the rough earl who said, 'Go spin, ye jades, go spin.' It was the employment at which Roman matrons and Grecian princesses presided amongst their handmaids. Heathen mythology celebrated it in the three Fates spinning and measuring out the thread of human life. Holy Scripture honours it in those 'wise-hearted women' who 'did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun' for the construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness: and an old English proverb carries it still farther back to the time 'when Adam delved and Eve span.' ... "

Notice the "heathen", "holy", ... attitudes of Rome, or did they carry into church of England as well?

And yet, the disdain and contempt for Jews prevailed, despite the awareness of self conscious attitude of superiority of an abrahmic culture, over not only those of other continents, but of Greece and Egypt etc., as well.

Or do they forget bible was the Jewish history, literally?

" ... But, at last, this time-honoured domestic manufacture is quite extinct amongst us —crushed by the power of steam, overborne by a countless host of spinning jennies, and I can only just remember some of its last struggles for existence in the Steventon cottages."

And Gandhi revived it, to fight back Brits taking away food out of mouths in India by literally chopping off thumbs of Indian weavers.

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"I know little of Jane Austen's childhood. Her mother followed a custom, not unusual in those days, though it seems strange to us, of putting out her babies to be nursed in a cottage in the village. The infant was daily visited by one or both of its parents, and frequently brought to them at the parsonage, but the cottage was its home, and must have remained so till it was old enough to run about and talk; for I know that one of them, in after life, used to speak of his foster mother as 'Movie,' the name by which he had called her in his infancy. ... "

This seems to conform to the French upper class custom of the childhood of Balzac, who was not only farmed out but nowhere close to his parents, brought up in a comparatively poor and rough village by a farmers family paid for the purpose, having never met his upper class parents until he was five, and disdained forever by them for his lack of elegance. There were more horrors mentioned as normal French practice by the biographer of Balzac, such as upper class women not only never breastfeeding their own children, but often using tight stays during pregnancy throughout, so children were born damaged, and if so, were then doomed to spend their lives as circus freaks.

"" ... It may be that the contrast between the parsonage house and the best class of cottages was not quite so extreme then as it would be now, that the one was somewhat less luxurious, and the other less squalid. It would certainly seem from the results that it was a wholesome and invigorating system, for the children were all strong and healthy. Jane was probably treated like the rest in this respect. In childhood every available opportunity of instruction was made use of. According to the ideas of the time, she was well educated, though not highly accomplished, and she certainly enjoyed that important element of mental training, associating at home with persons of cultivated intellect. It cannot be doubted that her early years were bright and happy, living, as she did, with indulgent parents, in a cheerful home, not without agreeable variety of society. To these sources of enjoyment must be added the first stirrings of talent within her, and the absorbing interest of original composition. It is impossible to say at how early an age she began to write. There are copy books extant containing tales some of which must have been composed while she was a young girl, as they had amounted to a considerable number by the time she was sixteen." ... "

The author gives an example of her earlier writing, a comedy titled Mystery.

""Her own mature opinion of the desirableness of such an early habit of composition is given in the following words of a niece—

"'As I grew older, my aunt would talk to me more seriously of my reading and my amusements. I had taken early to writing verses and stories, and I am sorry to think how I troubled her with reading them. She was very kind about it, and always had some praise to bestow, but at last she warned me against spending too much time upon them. She said —how well I recollect it! —That she knew writing stories was a great amusement, and she thought a harmless one, though many people, she was aware, thought otherwise; but that at my age it would be bad for me to be much taken up with my own compositions. Later still —it was after she had gone to Winchester —she sent me a message to this effect, that if I would take her advice I should cease writing till I was sixteen; that she had herself often wished she had read more, and written less in the corresponding years of her own life.' As this niece was only twelve years old at the time of her aunt's death, these words seem to imply that the juvenile tales to which I have referred had, some of them at least, been written in her childhood."

"But between these childish effusions, and the composition of her living works, there intervened another stage of her progress, during which she produced some stories, not without merit, but which she never considered worthy of publication. During this preparatory period her mind seems to have been working in a very different direction from that into which it ultimately settled. Instead of presenting faithful copies of nature, these tales were generally burlesques, ridiculing the improbable events and exaggerated sentiments which she had met with in sundry silly romances. ..."

These early attempts were later collectively published, individually, and collectively as Juvenilia, but not until the time this memoir was published, for the author thinks the family deciding not to publish them was the right decision.

"The family have, rightly, I think, declined to let these early works be published."

" ... it would be as unfair to expose this preliminary process to the world, as it would be to display all that goes on behind the curtain of the theatre before it is drawn up."

But Jane Austen could have destroyed them if she'd so chosen, although to be fair she didn't decide to publish her more finished works until much later, years after they were written, either, and then only with much persuasion from her brother.

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"It was, however, at Steventon that the real foundations of her fame were laid. There some of her most successful writing was composed at such an early age as to make it surprising that so young a woman could have acquired the insight into character, and the nice observation of manners which they display. 'Pride and Prejudice,' which some consider the most brilliant of her novels, was the first finished, if not the first begun. She began it in October 1796, before she was twenty-one years old, and completed it in about ten months, in August 1797. The title then intended for it was 'First Impressions.' 'Sense and Sensibility' was begun, in its present form, immediately after the completion of the former, in November 1797 but something similar in story and character had been written earlier under the title of 'Elinor and Marianne;' and if, as is probable, a good deal of this earlier production was retained, it must form the earliest specimen of her writing that has been given to the world. 'Northanger Abbey,' though not prepared for the press till 1803, was certainly first composed in 1798."

"Amongst the most valuable neighbours of the Austens were Mr. and Mrs. Lefroy and their family. He was rector of the adjoining parish of Ashe; she was sister to Sir Egerton Brydges, to whom we are indebted for the earliest notice of Jane Austen that exists. In his autobiography, speaking of his visits at Ashe, he writes thus: 'The nearest neighbours of the Lefroys were the Austens of Steventon. I remember Jane Austen, the novelist, as a little child. She was very intimate with Mrs. Lefroy, and much encouraged by her. Her mother was a Miss Leigh, whose paternal grandmother was sister to the first Duke of Chandos. Mr. Austen was of a Kentish family, of which several branches have been settled in the Weald of Kent, and some are still remaining there. When I knew Jane Austen, I never suspected that she was an authoress; but my eyes told me that she was fair and handsome, slight and elegant, ... "

"That great-grandmother however lives in the family records as Mary Brydges, a daughter of Lord Chandos, married in Westminster Abbey to Theophilus Leigh of Addlestrop in 1698. When a girl she had received a curious letter of advice and reproof, written by her mother from Constantinople ... "

"This letter shows that the wealth acquired by trade was already manifesting itself in contrast with the straitened circumstances of some of the nobility. Mary Brydges's 'poor ffather,' in whose household economy was necessary, was the King of England's ambassador at Constantinople; the grandmother, who lived in 'great plenty and splendour,' was the widow of a Turkey merchant. But then, as now, it would seem, rank had the power of attracting and absorbing wealth."

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"At Ashe also Jane became acquainted with a member of the Lefroy family, who was still living when I began these memoirs, a few months ago; the Right Hon. Thomas Lefroy, late Chief Justice of Ireland. One must look back more than seventy years to reach the time when these two bright young persons were, for a short time, intimately acquainted with each other, and then separated on their several courses, never to meet again; both destined to attain some distinction in their different ways, one to survive the other for more than half a century, yet in his extreme old age to remember and speak, as he sometimes did, of his former companion, as one to be much admired, and not easily forgotten by those who had ever known her."

In one of her letters to her sister, Jane mentions this Lefroy as one she must stop flirting with; was there, had there been more? The author includes here a poem written as tribute to Mrs Lefroy by Jane, one not included in the collection of her poems published under that title.

....

"Angelic woman! past my power to praise

"In language meet thy talents, temper, mind,

"Thy solid worth, thy captivating grace,

"Thou friend and ornament of human kind."

....

"Listen! It is not sound alone, 'tis sense,

"'Tis genius, taste, and tenderness of soul:

"'Tis genuine warmth of heart without pretence,

"And purity of mind that crowns the whole."

....

The terms of praise in this poem, a paens to late Mrs Lefroy who'd died in 1804 on Jane Austen's birthday, we're written four years later, and the praise makes one wonder if the figure of Jane Fairfax was modelled on this person, and perhaps also part of the story.

................................................................................................

Author includes some of the letters written by Jane Austen. These letters seem not to have been included in the collection of Jane Austen letters published under that title, but interestingly one mentions a tidbit that reminds one of Mansfield Park.

"' ... Charles has received 30l. for his share of the privateer, and expects 10l. more; but of what avail is it to take prizes if he lays out the produce in presents to his sisters? He has been buying gold chains and topaze crosses for us. He must be well scolded. ... "

................................................................................................

" ... I do not know whether they were at all attracted to Bath by the circumstance that Mrs. Austen's only brother, Mr. Leigh Perrot, spent part of every year there. The name of Perrot, together with a small estate at Northleigh in Oxfordshire, had been bequeathed to him by a great uncle. I must devote a few sentences to this very old and now extinct branch of the Perrot family; for one of the last survivors, Jane Perrot, married to a Walker, was Jane Austen's great grandmother, from whom she derived her Christian name. The Perrots were settled in Pembrokeshire at least as early as the thirteenth century. ... The last of this family died about 1778, and their property was divided between Leighs and Musgraves, the larger portion going to the latter. Mr. Leigh Perrot pulled down the mansion, and sold the estate to the Duke of Marlborough, and the name of these Perrots is now to be found only on some monuments in the church of Northleigh.

"Mr. Leigh Perrot was also one of several cousins to whom a life interest in the Stoneleigh property in Warwickshire was left, after the extinction of the earlier Leigh peerage, but he compromised his claim to the succession in his lifetime. He married a niece of Sir Montague Cholmeley of Lincolnshire. He was a man of considerable natural power, with much of the wit of his uncle, the Master of Balliol, and wrote clever epigrams and riddles, some of which, though without his name, found their way into print; but he lived a very retired life, dividing his time between Bath and his place in Berkshire called Scarlets. Jane's letters from Bath make frequent mention of this uncle and aunt.

"The unfinished story, now published under the title of 'The Watsons,' must have been written during the author's residence in Bath. In the autumn of 1804 she spent some weeks at Lyme, and became acquainted with the Cobb, which she afterwards made memorable for the fall of Louisa Musgrove."

................................................................................................

Author includes another couple of letters here, to Cassandra, and there are some bits of the sparkling wit of Jane Austen.

" ... It was absolutely necessary that I should have the little fever and indisposition which I had: it has been all the fashion this week in Lyme. ... "

Then there is one bit that reminds one of Emma being given a sharp reproof by Knightley ".. it was badly done!", when she is witty at the picnic at expense of an elderly gentlewoman, now in reduced circumstances.

" ... Poor Mrs. Stent! it has been her lot to be always in the way; but we must be merciful, for perhaps in time we may come to be Mrs. Stents ourselves, unequal to anything, and unwelcome to everybody ... "

Next, there's a bit that reminds one of Frank Churchill in Emma -

" ... I have not expressly enumerated myself among the party, but there I was, and my cousin George was very kind, and talked sense to me every now and then, in the intervals of his more animated fooleries with Miss B., who is very young, and rather handsome, and whose gracious manners, ready wit, and solid remarks, put me somewhat in mind of my old acquaintance L. L. There was a monstrous deal of stupid quizzing and common-place nonsense talked, but scarcely any wit; all that bordered on it or on sense came from my cousin George, whom altogether I like very well. ... "

And the author comments on this -

"Jane did not estimate too highly the 'Cousin George' mentioned in the foregoing letter; who might easily have been superior in sense and wit to the rest of the party. He was the Rev. George Leigh Cooke, long known and respected at Oxford, where he held important offices, and had the privilege of helping to form the minds of men more eminent than himself. As tutor in Corpus Christi College, he became instructor to some of the most distinguished undergraduates of that time: amongst others to Dr. Arnold, the Rev. John Keble, and Sir John Coleridge. ... Mr. Cooke was also an impressive preacher of earnest awakening sermons. I remember to have heard it observed by some of my undergraduate friends that, after all, there was more good to be got from George Cooke's plain sermons than from much of the more laboured oratory of the university pulpit. He was frequently Examiner in the schools, and occupied the chair of the Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy, from 1810 to 1853."

................................................................................................

The author recounts some memories of his own of Southampton, where the family shifted after death of Jane Austen's father at Bath.

"In 1809 Mr. Knight was able to offer his mother the choice of two houses on his property; one near his usual residence at Godmersham Park in Kent; the other near Chawton House, his occasional residence in Hampshire. The latter was chosen; and in that year the mother and daughters, together with Miss Lloyd, a near connection who lived with them, settled themselves at Chawton Cottage.

"Chawton may be called the second, as well as the last home of Jane Austen; for during the temporary residences of the party at Bath and Southampton she was only a sojourner in a strange land; but here she found a real home amongst her own people. It so happened that during her residence at Chawton circumstances brought several of her brothers and their families within easy distance of the house. Chawton must also be considered the place most closely connected with her career as a writer; for there it was that, in the maturity of her mind, she either wrote or rearranged, and prepared for publication the books by which she has become known to the world. This was the home where, after a few years, while still in the prime of life, she began to droop and wither away, and which she left only in the last stage of her illness, yielding to the persuasion of friends hoping against hope."

................................................................................................

"Chapter 5

"Description of Jane Austen's person, character, and tastes."

Such parts hereof, as have been taken into Conant's extracts, have been commented on the review to his article. But it's worth repeating some parts here.

"At the time of her removal to Chawton Cottage, Jane Austen was very attractive in person: her figure was rather tall and slender, her step light and firm, and her whole appearance expressive of health and animation. In complexion she was a clear brunette with a rich colour; she had full round cheeks, with mouth and nose small and well formed, bright hazel eyes, and brown hair forming natural curls close round her face. If not so regularly handsome as her sister, yet her countenance had a peculiar charm of its own to the eyes of most beholders. ... "

This supports the impression about the two elder Bennet sisters, of Pride and Prejudice, being modelled after Jane Austen's sister and herself, with perhaps an unconscious desire about wishing she was the more beautiful elder sister, reflected in choice of names.

" ... She was not highly accomplished according to the present standard. Her sister drew well, and it is from a drawing of hers that the likeness prefixed to this article has been taken. ... "

That must be the source of the image used on most of the Jane Austen works.

" ... Jane herself was fond of music, and had a sweet voice, both in singing and in conversation; in her youth she had received some instruction on the piano-forte; and at Chawton she practiced daily, chiefly before breakfast. In the evening she would sometimes sing, to her own accompaniment, some simple old songs, the words and airs of which, now rarely heard, still linger in the memory of old people. ... "

That has gone into the Elizabeth Bennet image, certainly.

" ... She read French with facility, and knew something of Italian. ... "

Reminds of the scene in the Bingley drawing room, where Miss Bingley provokes Darcy to speak regarding his expectations of a young woman's accomplishments before he could call her accomplished.

" ... In those days German was no more thought of than Hindostanee, as part of a lady's education. ... "

On one hand, that tells us of the disdain of an ignorant Brit, and most Europeans at that, about the treasure they were looting and attempting destruction thereof - India. On the other, one has to wonder if any of them, including those enamoured of India due to realising just how rich and enormous the treasure India was and is, could quite learn an Indian language, much less be good at it? Including Goethe or Maxmuller or a Hesse? Brits would, of course, have a problem of attitude, although the missionaries had to let go of one attitude to support another, in attemptin learning a local language in India so as to be able to convert people, thus remaining blind to the far deeper, far faster treasure.

................................................................................................

" ... In history she followed the old guides —Goldsmith, Hume, and Robertson. Critical enquiry into the usually received statements of the old historians was scarcely begun. The history of the early kings of Rome had not yet been dissolved into legend. Historic characters lay before the reader's eyes in broad light or shade, not much broken up by details. The virtues of King Henry VIII. were yet undiscovered, nor had much light been thrown on the inconsistencies of Queen Elizabeth; the one was held to be an unmitigated tyrant, and an embodied Blue Beard; the other a perfect model of wisdom and policy. ... "

That being the case, strange how she was so against Queen Elizabeth I in her History of England, even if it wasn't a serious piece of writing.

" ... Scott's poetry gave her great pleasure; she did not live to make much acquaintance with his novels. ... "

Author quotes from a letter of hers -

" 'Walter Scott has no business to write novels; especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and ought not to be taking the bread out of other people's mouths. I do not mean to like "Waverley," if I can help it, but I fear I must. I am quite determined, however, not to be pleased with Mrs. ——'s, should I ever meet with it, which I hope I may not. I think I can be stout against anything written by her. I have made up my mind to like no novels really, but Miss Edgeworth's, E.'s, and my own.'"

One has to wonder who E. is or was; coukdnt be Emily Bronte, could it? She wrote only one. But thanks to internet and e-books, one has become acquainted with the name of Maria Ellsworth.

................................................................................................

Author quotes her nieces and nephews who visited Chawton House.

"'As a very little girl I was always creeping up to Aunt Jane, and following her whenever I could, in the house and out of it. I might not have remembered this but for the recollection of my mother's telling me privately, that I must not be troublesome to my aunt. Her first charm to children was great sweetness of manner. She seemed to love you, and you loved her in return. This, as well as I can now recollect, was what I felt in my early days, before I was old enough to be amused by her cleverness. But soon came the delight of her playful talk. She could make everything amusing to a child. Then, as I got older, when cousins came to share the entertainment, she would tell us the most delightful stories, chiefly of Fairyland, and her fairies had all characters of their own. The tale was invented, I am sure, at the moment, and was continued for two or three days, if occasion served.'"

"Very similar is the testimony of another niece: —'Aunt Jane was the general favourite with children; her ways with them being so playful, and her long circumstantial stories so delightful. These were continued from time to time, and were begged for on all possible and impossible occasions; woven, as she proceeded, out of nothing but her own happy talent for invention. Ah! if but one of them could be recovered! And again, as I grew older, when the original seventeen years between our ages seemed to shrink to seven, or to nothing, it comes back to me now how strangely I missed her. It had become so much a habit with me to put by things in my mind with a reference to her, and to say to myself, I shall keep this for Aunt Jane.'

"A nephew of hers used to observe that his visits to Chawton, after the death of his aunt Jane, were always a disappointment to him. From old associations he could not help expecting to be particularly happy in that house; and never till he got there could he realise to himself how all its peculiar charm was gone. It was not only that the chief light in the house was quenched, but that the loss of it had cast a shade over the spirits of the survivors. ... "

................................................................................................

Author quotes several examples of her humour expressed in verse, of which one surprises because Jane Austen never did travel outside England.

"In measured verse I'll now rehearse

"The charms of lovely Anna:

"And, first, her mind is unconfined

"Like any vast savannah.

"Ontario's lake may fitly speak

"Her fancy's ample bound:

"Its circuit may, on strict survey

"Five hundred miles be found.

"Her wit descends on foes and friends

"Like famed Niagara's Fall;

"And travellers gaze in wild amaze,

"And listen, one and all.

"Her judgment sound, thick, black, profound,

"Like transatlantic groves,

"Dispenses aid, and friendly shade

"To all that in it roves.

"If thus her mind to be defined

"America exhausts,

"And all that's grand in that great land

"In similes it costs—

"Oh how can I her person try

"To image and portray?

"How paint the face, the form how trace

"In which those virtues lay?

"Another world must be unfurled,

"Another language known,

"Ere tongue or sound can publish round

"Her charms of flesh and bone."

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Author's mention of Jane Austen's niece writing a novel explains something.

"The following extracts are from letters addressed to a niece who was at that time amusing herself by attempting a novel, probably never finished, certainly never published, and of which I know nothing but what these extracts tell. They show the good-natured sympathy and encouragement which the aunt, then herself occupied in writing 'Emma,' could give to the less matured powers of the niece. ... "

The extracts, already mostly quoted in reviewing Jane Austen Letters, aren't quoted here; but one bit is irresistible.

"Indeed, I do think you get on very fast. I wish other people of my acquaintance could compose as rapidly. Julian's history was quite a surprise to me. You had not very long known it yourself, I suspect; but I have no objection to make to the circumstance; it is very well told, and his having been in love with the aunt gives Cecilia an additional interest with him. I like the idea; a very proper compliment to an aunt! I rather imagine, indeed, that nieces are seldom chosen but in compliment to some aunt or other. I dare say your husband was in love with me once, and would never have thought of you if he had not supposed me dead of a scarlet fever.'"

But, reading the letters, then, one was mystified about the niece's writing, since it wasn't known to one that this was a family with more than one writer.

Why she did not publish is a good question. Was it fear or shyness due to possibility of comparison? Or just the family trait?

We are lucky Jane Austen had a brother who encouraged her to publish!

................................................................................................

"Jane Austen was successful in everything that she attempted with her fingers. ... But the writing was not the only part of her letters which showed superior handiwork. In those days there was an art in folding and sealing. No adhesive envelopes made all easy. Some people's letters always looked loose and untidy; but her paper was sure to take the right folds, and her sealing-wax to drop into the right place. Her needlework both plain and ornamental was excellent, and might almost have put a sewing machine to shame. She was considered especially great in satin stitch. She spent much time in these occupations, and some of her merriest talk was over clothes which she and her companions were making, sometimes for themselves, and sometimes for the poor. There still remains a curious specimen of her needle work made for a sister-in-law, my mother. In a very small bag is deposited a little rolled up housewife, furnished with minikin needles and fine thread. In the housewife is a tiny pocket, and in the pocket is enclosed a slip of paper, on which, written as with a crow quill, are these lines:—

"This little bag, I hope, will prove

"To be not vainly made;

"For should you thread and needles want,

"It will afford you aid.

"And, as we are about to part,

"'T will serve another end;

"For, when you look upon this bag,

"You'll recollect your friend."

""It is the kind of article that some benevolent fairy might be supposed to give as a reward to a diligent little girl. The whole is of flowered silk, and having been never used and carefully preserved, it is as fresh and bright as when it was first made seventy years ago; and shows that the same hand which painted so exquisitely with the pen could work as delicately with the needle.""

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" ... The first year of her residence at Chawton seems to have been devoted to revising and preparing for the press 'Sense and Sensibility,' and 'Pride and Prejudice'; but between February 1811 and August 1816, she began and completed 'Mansfield Park,' 'Emma,' and 'Persuasion,' so that the last five years of her life produced the same number of novels with those which had been written in her early youth. How she was able to effect all this is surprising, for she had no separate study to retire to, and most of the work must have been done in the general sitting-room, subject to all kinds of casual interruptions. She was careful that her occupation should not be suspected by servants, or visitors, or any persons beyond her own family party. She wrote upon small sheets of paper which could easily be put away, or covered with a piece of blotting paper. There was, between the front door and the offices, a swing door which creaked when it was opened; but she objected to having this little inconvenience remedied, because it gave her notice when anyone was coming."

"In that well occupied female party there must have been many precious hours of silence during which the pen was busy at the little mahogany writing-desk,[71] while Fanny Price, or Emma Woodhouse, or Anne Elliott was growing into beauty and interest. I have no doubt that I, and my sisters and cousins, in our visits to Chawton, frequently disturbed this mystic process, without having any idea of the mischief that we were doing; certainly we never should have guessed it by any signs of impatience or irritability in the writer.

"As so much had been previously prepared, when once she began to publish, her works came out in quick succession. 'Sense and Sensibility' was published in 1811, 'Pride and Prejudice' at the beginning of 1813, 'Mansfield Park' in 1814, 'Emma' early in 1816; 'Northanger Abbey' and 'Persuasion' did not appear till after her death, in 1818. It will be shown farther on why 'Northanger Abbey,' though amongst the first written, was one of the last published. Her first three novels were published by Egerton, her last three by Murray. The profits of the four which had been printed before her death had not at that time amounted to seven hundred pounds."

................................................................................................

"It was not till towards the close of her life, when the last of the works that she saw published was in the press, that she received the only mark of distinction ever bestowed upon her; and that was remarkable for the high quarter whence it emanated rather than for any actual increase of fame that it conferred. It happened thus. In the autumn of 1815 she nursed her brother Henry through a dangerous fever and slow convalescence at his house in Hans Place. He was attended by one of the Prince Regent's physicians. All attempts to keep her name secret had at this time ceased, and though it had never appeared on a title-page, all who cared to know might easily learn it and the friendly physician was aware that his patient's nurse was the author of 'Pride and Prejudice.' Accordingly he informed her one day that the prince was a great admirer of her novels; that he read them often, and kept a set in every one of his residences; that he himself therefore had thought it right to inform his Royal Highness that Miss Austen was staying in London, and that the prince had desired Mr. Clarke, the librarian of Carlton House, to wait upon her. The next day Mr. Clarke made his appearance, and invited her to Carlton House, saying that he had the prince's instructions to show her the library and other apartments, and to pay her every possible attention. The invitation was of course accepted, and during the visit to Carlton House, Mr. Clarke declared himself commissioned to say that if Miss Austen had any other novel forthcoming she was at liberty to dedicate it to the prince. Accordingly such a dedication was immediately prefixed to 'Emma,' which was at that time in the press."

They met, and Mr Clarke suggested that she write sketching a clergyman, asserting no one else could do so as well; she declined, stating the lack of knowledge enough on her part.

"Mr. Clarke, however, was not to be discouraged from proposing another subject. He had recently been appointed chaplain and private English secretary to Prince Leopold, who was then about to be united to the Princess Charlotte; and when he again wrote to express the gracious thanks of the Prince Regent for the copy of 'Emma' which had been presented, he suggests that 'an historical romance illustrative of the august House of Cobourg would just now be very interesting,' and might very properly be dedicated to Prince Leopold. This was much as if Sir William Ross had been set to paint a great battle-piece; and it is amusing to see with what grave civility she declined a proposal which must have struck her as ludicrous, in the following letter:—

"'My dear Sir, —I am honoured by the prince's thanks and very much obliged to yourself for the kind manner in which you mention the work. ... "

" ... I am fully sensible that an historical romance, founded on the House of Saxe Cobourg, might be much more to the purpose of profit or popularity than such pictures of domestic life in country villages as I deal in. But I could no more write a romance than an epic poem. I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or at other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other.

"'I remain, my dear Sir,

"'Your very much obliged, and sincere friend, 'J. AUSTEN."

................................................................................................

"All writers of fiction, who have genius strong enough to work out a course of their own, resist every attempt to interfere with its direction. No two writers could be more unlike each other than Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte; so much so that the latter was unable to understand why the former was admired, and confessed that she herself 'should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses;' but each writer equally resisted interference with her own natural style of composition. Miss Bronte, in reply to a friendly critic, who had warned her against being too melodramatic, and had ventured to propose Miss Austen's works to her as a study, writes thus:—

"'Whenever I do write another book, I think I will have nothing of what you call "melodrama." I think so, but I am not sure. I think, too, I will endeavour to follow the counsel which shines out of Miss Austen's "mild eyes," to finish more, and be more subdued; but neither am I sure of that. When authors write best, or, at least, when they write most fluently, an influence seems to waken in them which becomes their master —which will have its way —putting out of view all behests but its own, dictating certain words, and insisting on their being used, whether vehement or measured in their nature, new moulding characters, giving unthought of turns to incidents, rejecting carefully elaborated old ideas, and suddenly creating and adopting new ones. Is it not so? And should we try to counteract this influence? Can we indeed counteract it?'"

"The playful raillery with which the one parries an attack on her liberty, and the vehement eloquence of the other in pleading the same cause and maintaining the independence of genius, are very characteristic of the minds of the respective writers.

"The suggestions which Jane received as to the sort of story that she ought to write were, however, an amusement to her, though they were not likely to prove useful; and she has left amongst her papers one entitled, 'Plan of a novel according to hints from various quarters.' The names of some of those advisers are written on the margin of the manuscript opposite to their respective suggestions."

Indeed, that project would have been most interesting; but just as interesting are the names of those providing the suggestions. And one has to wonder why one part has a similarity to a work of George sand, while the flight through Europe clear to Kamchatka is very reminiscent of a work by James Hilton based in the Russian revolution times.

................................................................................................

" ... Sometimes a friend or neighbour, who chanced to know of our connection with the author, would condescend to speak with moderate approbation of 'Sense and Sensibility,' or 'Pride and Prejudice'; but if they had known that we, in our secret thoughts, classed her with Madame d'Arblay or Miss Edgeworth, or even with some other novel writers of the day whose names are now scarcely remembered, they would have considered it an amusing instance of family conceit. To the multitude her works appeared tame and commonplace,[78] poor in colouring, and sadly deficient in incident and interest. It is true that we were sometimes cheered by hearing that a different verdict had been pronounced by more competent judges: we were told how some great statesman or distinguished poet held these works in high estimation; we had the satisfaction of believing that they were most admired by the best judges, and comforted ourselves with Horace's 'satis est Equitem mihi plaudere.' So much was this the case, that one of the ablest men of my acquaintance[79] said, in that kind of jest which has much earnest in it, that he had established it in his own mind, as a new test of ability, whether people could or could not appreciate Miss Austen's merits.

"But though such golden opinions were now and then gathered in, yet the wide field of public taste yielded no adequate return either in praise or profit. Her reward was not to be the quick return of the cornfield, but the slow growth of the tree which is to endure to another generation. Her first attempts at publication were very discouraging. In November, 1797, her father wrote ... to Mr. Cadell "

"This proposal was declined by return of post! The work thus summarily rejected must have been 'Pride and Prejudice.'

"The fate of 'Northanger Abbey' was still more humiliating. It was sold, in 1803, to a publisher in Bath, for ten pounds, but it found so little favour in his eyes, that he chose to abide by his first loss rather than risk farther expense by publishing such a work. It seems to have lain for many years unnoticed in his drawers; somewhat as the first chapters of 'Waverley' lurked forgotten amongst the old fishing-tackle in Scott's cabinet. Tilneys, Thorpes, and Morlands consigned apparently to eternal oblivion! But when four novels of steadily increasing success had given the writer some confidence in herself, she wished to recover the copyright of this early work. One of her brothers undertook the negotiation. He found the purchaser very willing to receive back his money, and to resign all claim to the copyright. When the bargain was concluded and the money paid, but not till then, the negotiator had the satisfaction of informing him that the work which had been so lightly esteemed was by the author of 'Pride and Prejudice.' I do not think that she was herself much mortified by the want of early success. She wrote for her own amusement. Money, though acceptable, was not necessary for the moderate expenses of her quiet home. Above all, she was blessed with a cheerful contented disposition, and an humble mind; and so lowly did she esteem her own claims, that when she received 150l. from the sale of 'Sense and Sensibility,' she considered it a prodigious recompense for that which had cost her nothing. It cannot be supposed, however, that she was altogether insensible to the superiority of her own workmanship over that of some contemporaries who were then enjoying a brief popularity. Indeed a few touches in the following extracts from two of her letters show that she was as quick sighted to absurdities in composition as to those in living persons.

"'Mr. C.'s opinion is gone down in my list; but as my paper relates only to "Mansfield Park," I may fortunately excuse myself from entering Mr. D's. I will redeem my credit with him by writing a close imitation of "Self-Control," as soon as I can. I will improve upon it. My heroine shall not only be wafted down an American river in a boat by herself. She shall cross the Atlantic in the same way; and never stop till she reaches Gravesend.'"

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Author describes two reviews, one by "Whately, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin."

" ... One can scarcely be satisfied with the critical acumen of the former writer, who, in treating of 'Sense and Sensibility,' takes no notice whatever of the vigour with which many of the characters are drawn, but declares that 'the interest and merit of the piece depends altogether upon the behaviour of the elder sister!' Nor is he fair when, in 'Pride and Prejudice,' he represents Elizabeth's change of sentiments towards Darcy as caused by the sight of his house and grounds. ... "

This is a mistake very commonly made, and perhaps is a key separating a common mind from a finer one that can discern Jane Austen's writing.

"The world, I think, has endorsed the opinion of the later writer; but it would not be fair to set down the discrepancy between the two entirely to the discredit of the former. The fact is that, in the course of the intervening five years, these works had been read and reread by many leaders in the literary world. The public taste was forming itself all this time, and 'grew by what it fed on.' These novels belong to a class which gain rather than lose by frequent perusals, and it is probable that each reviewer represented fairly enough the prevailing opinions of readers in the year when each wrote."

................................................................................................

"The admiration felt by Lord Macaulay would probably have taken a very practical form, if his life had been prolonged. I have the authority of his sister, Lady Trevelyan, for stating that he had intended to undertake the task upon which I have ventured. He purposed to write a memoir of Miss Austen, with criticisms on her works, to prefix it to a new edition of her novels, and from the proceeds of the sale to erect a monument to her memory in Winchester Cathedral. Oh! that such an idea had been realised! That portion of the plan in which Lord Macaulay's success would have been most certain might have been almost sufficient for his object. A memoir written by him would have been a monument."

Would, could, this be the Macaulay who wrote up the explicit policy of how to butcher India so as to break her spirit, enslave her people and loot her successfully, using lies about anything that was good about India, and breaking down anything that helped her live?

................................................................................................

" ... remarkable words of Sir Walter Scott, taken from his diary for March 14, 1826:[84] 'Read again, for the third time at least, Miss Austen's finely written novel of "Pride and Prejudice." That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary common-place things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!' The well-worn condition of Scott's own copy of these works attests that they were much read in his family. When I visited Abbotsford, a few years after Scott's death, I was permitted, as an unusual favour, to take one of these volumes in my hands. One cannot suppress the wish that she had lived to know what such men thought of her powers, and how gladly they would have cultivated a personal acquaintance with her. I do not think that it would at all have impaired the modest simplicity of her character; or that we should have lost our own dear 'Aunt Jane' in the blaze of literary fame."

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"It is not the object of these memoirs to attempt a criticism on Jane Austen's novels. Those particulars only have been noticed which could be illustrated by the circumstances of her own life; but I now desire to offer a few observations on them, and especially on one point, on which my age renders me a competent witness —the fidelity with which they represent the opinions and manners of the class of society in which the author lived early in this century. They do this the more faithfully on account of the very deficiency with which they have been sometimes charged —namely, that they make no attempt to raise the standard of human life, but merely represent it as it was. They certainly were not written to support any theory or inculcate any particular moral, except indeed the great moral which is to be equally gathered from an observation of the course of actual life —namely, the superiority of high over low principles, and of greatness over littleness of mind. These writings are like photographs, in which no feature is softened; no ideal expression is introduced, all is the unadorned reflection of the natural object; and the value of such a faithful likeness must increase as time gradually works more and more changes in the face of society itself. ... "

" ... It is indeed true, both of the writer and of the painter, that he can use only such lineaments as exist, and as he has observed to exist, in living objects; otherwise he would produce monsters instead of human beings; but in both it is the office of high art to mould these features into new combinations, and to place them in the attitudes, and impart to them the expressions which may suit the purposes of the artist; so that they are nature, but not exactly the same nature which had come before his eyes; just as honey can be obtained only from the natural flowers which the bee has sucked; yet it is not a reproduction of the odour or flavour of any particular flower, but becomes something different when it has gone through the process of transformation which that little insect is able to effect. Hence, in the case of painters, arises the superiority of original compositions over portrait painting."

" ... She herself, when questioned on the subject by a friend, expressed a dread of what she called such an 'invasion of social proprieties.' She said that she thought it quite fair to note peculiarities and weaknesses, but that it was her desire to create, not to reproduce; 'besides,' she added, 'I am too proud of my gentlemen to admit that they were only Mr. A. or Colonel B.'"

"She certainly took a kind of parental interest in the beings whom she had created, and did not dismiss them from her thoughts when she had finished her last chapter. We have seen, in one of her letters, her personal affection for Darcy and Elizabeth; and when sending a copy of 'Emma' to a friend whose daughter had been lately born, she wrote thus: 'I trust you will be as glad to see my "Emma," as I shall be to see your Jemima.' She was very fond of Emma, but did not reckon on her being a general favourite; for, when commencing that work, she said, 'I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.' She would, if asked, tell us many little particulars about the subsequent career of some of her people. In this traditionary way we learned that Miss Steele never succeeded in catching the doctor; that Kitty Bennet was satisfactorily married to a clergyman near Pemberley, while Mary obtained nothing higher than one of her uncle Philip's clerks, and was content to be considered a star in the society of Meryton; that the 'considerable sum' given by Mrs. Norris to William Price was one pound; that Mr. Woodhouse survived his daughter's marriage, and kept her and Mr. Knightley from settling at Donwell, about two years; and that the letters placed by Frank Churchill before Jane Fairfax, which she swept away unread, contained the word 'pardon.' Of the good people in 'Northanger Abbey' and 'Persuasion' we know nothing more than what is written: for before those works were published their author had been taken away from us, and all such amusing communications had ceased for ever."

Wonder why she disliked Mary Bennet so! It could have been perfect for Mary to have caught the clerical cousin on rebound after Elizabeth Bennet had rejected him, and have the family reassured of their home, to begin with; but surely she didn't deserve the disdain, just for being immersed in books and music, even if she wasn't intellectual enough!

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"'Chawton, Monday, Dec. 16th (1816). 'MY DEAR E., —One reason for my writing to you now is, that I may have the pleasure of directing to you Esqre. I give you joy of having left Winchester. Now you may own how miserable you were there; now it will gradually all come out, your crimes and your miseries —how often you went up by the mail to London and threw away fifty guineas at a tavern, and how often you were on the point of hanging yourself, restrained only, as some ill-natured aspersion upon poor old Winton has it, by the want of a tree within some miles of the city. ... "

"Uncle Henry writes very superior sermons. You and I must try to get hold of one or two, and put them into our novels; it would be a fine help to a volume; and we could make our heroine read it aloud on a Sunday evening, just as well as Isabella Wardour, in the "Antiquary," is made to read the "History of the Hartz Demon" in the ruins of St. Ruth, though I believe, on recollection, Lovell is the reader. By the bye, my dear E., I am quite concerned for the loss your mother mentions in her letter. Two chapters and a half to be missing is monstrous! It is well that I have not been at Steventon lately, and therefore cannot be suspected of purloining them: two strong twigs and a half towards a nest of my own would have been something. I do not think, however, that any theft of that sort would be really very useful to me. What should I do with your strong, manly, vigorous sketches, full of variety and glow? How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour?

"'You will hear from Uncle Henry how well Anna is. She seems perfectly recovered. Ben was here on Saturday, to ask uncle Charles and me to dine with them, as tomorrow, but I was forced to decline it, the walk is beyond my strength (though I am otherwise very well), and this is not a season for donkey-carriages; and as we do not like to spare uncle Charles, he has declined it too.

"Tuesday. Ah, ah! Mr. E. I doubt your seeing Uncle Henry at Steventon today. The weather will prevent your expecting him, I think. Tell your father, with Aunt Cass's love and mine, that the pickled cucumbers are extremely good, and tell him also —"tell him what you will." No, don't tell him what you will, but tell him that grandmamma begs him to make Joseph Hall pay his rent, if he can.

"'You must not be tired of reading the word uncle, for I have not done with it. Uncle Charles thanks your mother for her letter; it was a great pleasure to him to know that the parcel was received and gave so much satisfaction, and he begs her to be so good as to give three shillings for him to Dame Staples, which shall be allowed for in the payment of her debt here.

"'Adieu, Amiable! I hope Caroline behaves well to you.

"Yours affecly,

"'J. AUSTEN.'"

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" ... The usual walk was at first shortened, and then discontinued; and air was sought in a donkey-carriage. Gradually, too, her habits of activity within the house ceased, and she was obliged to lie down much. The sitting-room contained only one sofa, which was frequently occupied by her mother, who was more than seventy years old. Jane would never use it, even in her mother's absence; but she contrived a sort of couch for herself with two or three chairs, and was pleased to say that this arrangement was more comfortable to her than a real sofa. Her reasons for this might have been left to be guessed, but for the importunities of a little niece, which obliged her to explain that if she herself had shown any inclination to use the sofa, her mother might have scrupled being on it so much as was good for her.

"It is certain, however, that the mind did not share in this decay of the bodily strength. 'Persuasion' was not finished before the middle of August in that year; and the manner in which it was then completed affords proof that neither the critical nor the creative powers of the author were at all impaired. The book had been brought to an end in July; and the re-engagement of the hero and heroine effected in a totally different manner in a scene laid at Admiral Croft's lodgings. But her performance did not satisfy her. She thought it tame and flat, and was desirous of producing something better. This weighed upon her mind, the more so probably on account of the weak state of her health; so that one night she retired to rest in very low spirits. But such depression was little in accordance with her nature, and was soon shaken off. The next morning she awoke to more cheerful views and brighter inspirations: the sense of power revived; and imagination resumed its course. She cancelled the condemned chapter, and wrote two others, entirely different, in its stead. The result is that we possess the visit of the Musgrove party to Bath; the crowded and animated scenes at the White Hart Hotel; and the charming conversation between Capt. Harville and Anne Elliot, overheard by Capt. Wentworth, by which the two faithful lovers were at last led to understand each other's feelings. ... "

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" ... I think I understand my own case now so much better than I did, as to be able by care to keep off any serious return of illness. I am convinced that bile is at the bottom of all I have suffered, which makes it easy to know how to treat myself. ... This is not a time of year for donkey-carriages, and our donkeys are necessarily having so long a run of luxurious idleness that I suppose we shall find they have forgotten much of their education when we use them again. We do not use two at once however; don't imagine such excesses..."

....

"'Yours affly, 'J. AUSTEN.

"'The real object of this letter is to ask you for a receipt, but I thought it genteel not to let it appear early. We remember some excellent orange wine at Manydown, made from Seville oranges, entirely or chiefly. I should be very much obliged to you for the receipt, if you can command it within a few weeks.'"

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"Alas! summer came to her only on her deathbed. March 17th is the last date to be found in the manuscript on which she was engaged; and as the watch of the drowned man indicates the time of his death, so does this final date seem to fix the period when her mind could no longer pursue its accustomed course."

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"'Mrs. David's, College St., Winton,

"'Tuesday, May 27th.

"'There is no better way, my dearest E., of thanking you for your affectionate concern for me during my illness than by telling you myself, as soon as possible, that I continue to get better. I will not boast of my handwriting; neither that nor my face have yet recovered their proper beauty, but in other respects I gain strength very fast. I am now out of bed from 9 in the morning to 10 at night; upon the sofa, it is true, but I eat my meals with Aunt Cassandra in a rational way, and can employ myself, and walk from one room to another. Mr. Lyford says he will cure me, and if he fails, I shall draw up a memorial and lay it before the dean and chapter, and have no doubt of redress from that pious, learned, and disinterested body. Our lodgings are very comfortable. We have a neat little drawing-room with a bow window overlooking Dr. Gabell's garden.[94] Thanks to the kindness of your father and mother in sending me their carriage, my journey hither on Saturday was performed with very little fatigue, and had it been a fine day, I think I should have felt none; but it distressed me to see uncle Henry and Wm. Knight, who kindly attended us on horseback, riding in the rain almost the whole way. We expect a visit from them tomorrow, and hope they will stay the night; and on Thursday, which is a confirmation and a holiday, we are to get Charles out to breakfast. We have had but one visit from him, poor fellow, as he is in sick-room, but he hopes to be out tonight. We see Mrs. Heathcote every day, and William is to call upon us soon. God bless you, my dear E. If ever you are ill, may you be as tenderly nursed as I have been. May the same blessed alleviations of anxious, sympathising friends be yours: and may you possess, as I dare say you will, the greatest blessing of all in the consciousness of not being unworthy of their love. I could not feel this.

"'Your very affecte Aunt, 'J. A.'"

"Throughout her illness she was nursed by her sister, often assisted by her sister-in-law, my mother. Both were with her when she died. Two of her brothers, who were clergymen, lived near enough to Winchester to be in frequent attendance, and to administer the services suitable for a Christian's death-bed. While she used the language of hope to her correspondents, she was fully aware of her danger, though not appalled by it. It is true that there was much to attach her to life. She was happy in her family; she was just beginning to feel confidence in her own success; and, no doubt, the exercise of her great talents was an enjoyment in itself. We may well believe that she would gladly have lived longer; but she was enabled without dismay or complaint to prepare for death. She was a humble, believing Christian. Her life had been passed in the performance of home duties, and the cultivation of domestic affections, without any self-seeking or craving after applause. She had always sought, as it were by instinct, to promote the happiness of all who came within her influence, and doubtless she had her reward in the peace of mind which was granted her in her last days. Her sweetness of temper never failed. She was ever considerate and grateful to those who attended on her. At times, when she felt rather better, her playfulness of spirit revived, and she amused them even in their sadness. Once, when she thought herself near her end, she said what she imagined might be her last words to those around her, and particularly thanked her sister-in-law for being with her, saying: 'You have always been a kind sister to me, Mary.' When the end at last came, she sank rapidly, and on being asked by her attendants whether there was anything that she wanted, her reply was, 'Nothing but death.' These were her last words. In quietness and peace she breathed her last on the morning of July 18, 1817."

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The next chapter, chapter 12 of this memoir by her nephew, consists of the original ending chapter of Persuasion that Jane Austen rewrote to her satisfaction, even as she was close to death.

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Chapter 13 begins with author describing her final days.

"'Persuasion' had been finished in August 1816; some time was probably given to correcting it for the press; but on the 27th of the following January, according to the date on her own manuscript, she began a new novel, and worked at it up to the 17th of March. The chief part of this manuscript is written in her usual firm and neat hand, but some of the latter pages seem to have been first traced in pencil, probably when she was too weak to sit long at her desk, and written over in ink afterwards. The quantity produced does not indicate any decline of power or industry, for in those seven weeks twelve chapters had been completed. It is more difficult to judge of the quality of a work so little advanced. It had received no name; there was scarcely any indication what the course of the story was to be, nor was any heroine yet perceptible, who, like Fanny Price, or Anne Elliot, might draw round her the sympathies of the reader. Such an unfinished fragment cannot be presented to the public; but I am persuaded that some of Jane Austen's admirers will be glad to learn something about the latest creations which were forming themselves in her mind; and therefore, as some of the principal characters were already sketched in with a vigorous hand, I will try to give an idea of them, illustrated by extracts from the work.

"The scene is laid at Sanditon, a village on the Sussex coast, just struggling into notoriety as a bathing-place, under the patronage of the two principal proprietors of the parish, Mr. Parker and Lady Denham."

Certainly Sanditon is quite promising, coming from Jane Austen, and one could see the budding story when Charlotte meets Sir Edward and later sees the couple talking together, obviously thinking they had complete privacy. It was disappointing it's cut at this point, almost as soon as it began.

"If the author had lived to complete her work, it is probable that these personages might have grown into as mature an individuality of character, and have taken as permanent a place amongst our familiar acquaintance, as Mr. Bennet, or John Thorp, Mary Musgrove, or Aunt Norris herself."

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"When first I was asked to put together a memoir of my aunt, I saw reasons for declining the attempt. It was not only that, having passed the three score years and ten usually allotted to man's strength, and being unaccustomed to write for publication, I might well distrust my ability to complete the work, but that I also knew the extreme scantiness of the materials out of which it must be constructed. The grave closed over my aunt fifty-two years ago; and during that long period no idea of writing her life had been entertained by any of her family. Her nearest relatives, far from making provision for such a purpose, had actually destroyed many of the letters and papers by which it might have been facilitated. They were influenced, I believe, partly by an extreme dislike to publishing private details, and partly by never having assumed that the world would take so strong and abiding an interest in her works as to claim her name as public property. It was therefore necessary for me to draw upon recollections rather than on written documents for my materials; while the subject itself supplied me with nothing striking or prominent with which to arrest the attention of the reader. It has been said that the happiest individuals, like nations during their happiest periods, have no history. In the case of my aunt, it was not only that her course of life was unvaried, but that her own disposition was remarkably calm and even. There was in her nothing eccentric or angular; no ruggedness of temper; no singularity of manner; none of the morbid sensibility or exaggeration of feeling, which not unfrequently accompanies great talents, to be worked up into a picture. Hers was a mind well balanced on a basis of good sense, sweetened by an affectionate heart, and regulated by fixed principles; so that she was to be distinguished from many other amiable and sensible women only by that peculiar genius which shines out clearly enough in her works, but of which a biographer can make little use. The motive which at last induced me to make the attempt is exactly expressed in the passage prefixed to these pages. I thought that I saw something to be done: knew of no one who could do it but myself, and so was driven to the enterprise. I am glad that I have been able to finish my work. ... "

"BRAY VICARAGE:

"Sept. 7, 1869."

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A Memoir of Jane Austen,

by James Edward Austen-Leigh.

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August 28, 2021 - August 30, 2021.

Kindle Edition, 98 pages

Published March 30th 2011

(first published 1870)

Original Title

A Memoir of Jane Austen

ASIN:- B004UK6WSU

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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4205241760

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Talking About Jane; by Caroline Austen, Anna Austen Lefroy,

James Edward Austen-Leigh, Henry Austen.

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August 21, 2021 - September 16, 2021.

Purchased September 06, 2021.

Kindle Edition, 178 pages

Published October 24th 2012

ASIN:-B009WVMLSM

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Talking About Jane; by Caroline Austen, Anna Austen Lefroy,

James Edward Austen-Leigh, Henry Austen.

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Thursday, September 16, 2021

Talking About Jane; by Caroline Austen, Anna Austen Lefroy, James Edward Austen-Leigh, Henry Austen.

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