His naturally solemn manner of writing, the fact that the essay was itself an elegy, and that the convention of the time
- 397 -
prevented his putting before the public that sort of intimate portrait which, in conversation, no one could have given so well as he, have made his description of so dated a nature, that only the extreme interest of its subject makes it possible for us to read it with any degree of intelligent participation. Its expression is as foreign to us as a marble monument of a veiled urn, or a memorial ring, showing a weeping willow made of the departed's hair.
The memoir of Mr. Edward Austen Leigh will always remain, after her own writings, the reader's most thrilling contact with Jane Austen. In certain aspects it is as eloquent of the 1870's as his Uncle Henry's is of 1818; but Mr. Austen Leigh had two points in his favor: he knew that there was a public anxious to hear anything which he could tell, and had Henry Austen felt sure of this, it would have altered the scope of his work considerably; secondly, the Edward Austen who had been writing a novel that had pleased his aunt had something of the novelist's capacity to present a human being, and the little anecdotes and remarks he collected from his own
remembrance and that of his sisters, though they are so few in number, give one occasionally a sense almost of clairvoyance. He opens his memoir at the point at which the ordinary biography of Jane Austen must naturally close, and when one has read the account of Cassandra Austen's vigil until half-past four of a summer's morning, in the house opposite the headmaster's garden, and her saying that they took the coffin away so quietly that had she not been
"upon the listen," she would not have heard them, it is then that Mr.
Austen Leigh's opening words take on their true perspective. "More than half a century has passed away, since I, the youngest of the mourners, attended the funeral of my dear Aunt Jane in Winchester Cathedral." After the ceremony,
- 398 -
he said: "Her brothers went back sorrowing to their several homes.
They were very fond and very proud of her . . . and each loved afterwards to fancy a resemblance in some niece or daughter of his own to the dear sister Jane, whose perfect equal they never yet expected to see."
Cassandra Austen returned to Chawton Cottage, where for ten years she lived looking after her mother. When it had become known that Jane's recovery was impossible, the family, in the midst of their own grief, had turned their thoughts to Cassandra with a dreadful
presentiment of horror; but, as Cassandra had said to Fanny Knight, she was not one to be overborne; she could suffer and go on living as before. As a very old lady, she was once seen at a family wedding, pale, with black eyes and a kind smile. Once when she was visited by a relation whose seventeen-year-old daughter had never seen Jane Austen, they were struck, when Cassandra spoke of her sister, by
"the accent of living love" in her voice.
There never was a time when Jane Austen's work was altogether
unrecognized. The appreciation that began in the mind of an older sister and extended to a family circle has spread through the channel of a small and cultivated group until the ordinary reader has become sufficiently familiar with the names of the books she wrote to be able to lay his hand on them naturally, and to feel on opening them that it was for him, after all, that they were originally written. Her fame has not only grown with immense rapidity in the last fifty years, but it is of such a nature as must increase and become more deeply founded as the number increases of people who have not time only but mental energy to read. Another circumstance which makes for the growth of her popularity is that her language offers no difficulty: for she possessed, through a happy combination of art and chance, a
- 399 -
style composed of those elements of language which do not date.
One may say with tolerable certainty that in fifty years' time the work of those writers of today who make use of such expressions as
"plutocrat-flattering bunk" and "he thought he would go bughouse,"
will sound old-fashioned beside the conversation of Emma
Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley.
Another aspect of her work which, though an external one, has
considerable influence in keeping a writer's work free from the accretions of decay, is that it is notably unhampered by detail. Her characters reveal the fact that they were born in the first decades of the nineteenth century by some of the reasons they supply for the things they do, and by the fact that they call each other Mr. and Miss instead of using the Christian name: but these things are no more important in the reader's comprehension of them, than the fact that they ride in carriages instead of in cars and airplanes. Actually they seem to meet, not in time, but space.
This is not an age favorable to the development of aesthetic genius; it may be that for a time all forms of art will pass into the domination of those who think that a good picture can be painted only if the artist's political views accord with theirs, and that it is only possible to write a good novel provided the author follows the rules they have laid down.
But such a state of things would not endure in a race with such powers of imagination, so vigorous and independent as our own. If and when that period should arrive, we must remind ourselves:
This is no common waste, no common gloom,
But nature in due course of time, once more
Shall here put on her beauty and her bloom.
- 400 -
Then the great writers of the past will come into their own more fully than before. So far from belonging to an outworn past, their work belongs to a future which will reveal more fully the beauty and the wonder of human nature, by recognizing more completely the rights of human existence.
- 401 -
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Letters of Jane Austen, Oxford Edition, ed. R. W. Chapman.
A Memoir of Jane Austen, J. E. Austen Leigh.
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, with a biographical notice of the author.
Letters of Jane Austen, edited by Lord Edward Brabourne.
Life and Letters of Jane Austen, W. and R. A. Austen Leigh.
Personal Aspects of Jane Austen, M. A. Austen Leigh.
Jane Austen and her Sailor Brothers, J. H. Hubback.
" Pen Portraits in Jane Austen's Novels," J. H. Hubback, Cornhill Magazine, May 1928.
Jane Austen, her Home and Friends, Constance Hill.
Jane Austen, Lord David Cecil.
Grand Larceny, Sir F. D. Mackinnon.
The Picturesque, Christopher Hussey.
The Rule of Taste, John Steegman.
La Belle Assemblée., 1800- 1810.
Charades, etc. , written a hundred years ago by Jane Austen and her family.
- 402 -
INDEX
Addison, Joseph, 38 -9
Alexander Selkirk, 252
Almack's, 20
Alphonsine, 181
Antiquary, 372
Armstrong, Miss, 153, 165
Arne, Thomas Augustine, 5
Austen, Ann ( née Matthew; first wife of James Austen), 47, 48
Austen, Anna (d. of James and Ann Austen; wife of Ben Lefroy), 48, 59, 112, 125, 129, 145, 183 -84, 195, 208, 216 -19, 222, 245 -46, 250, 251, 281, 304
Austen, Caroline (d. of James Austen), 129, 147 -48, 183, 206 11, 225, 309, 320, 363, 365 -66, 371, 378, 392
Austen, Cassandra ( née Leigh), 7 - 8, 14, 18, 27, 60, 90 -3, 96, 106, 108 -09, 117 -18, 124 -25, 133 -34, 150 -51, 163, 168, 177 -78, 292, 206, 226 -27, 241 -42, 255, 281, 305, 308 -09, 331, 389, 393 -94
Austen, Cassandra, 8 - 10, et seq., 16, 27 -8, 29, 46, 55, 57, 62, 90 -9, 106 -13, 117 -
30, 133 -35, 145 46, 150 -53, 164 -65, 168, 177 -80, 183 -86, 189 -90, 192 -98, 204 -
06, 209, 215 -19, 224 -26, 239 -44, 252 55, 278 -81, 288, 305 -07, 309, 315 -16, 318 -
20, 327 -31, 350, 357, 363, 371 -74, 376 -78, 380, 390 -99
Austen, Cassy (d. of Charles and Frances Austen), 192, 209, 239, 253 -54, 3
11, 317, 390
Austen, Cassy (d. of Francis Austen), 239
Austen, Charles, 9, 16, 106 -08, 123, 128, 180, 192, 195, 201, 215, 239 -41, 253 -54, 270, 309, 317, 332, 364, 390 -91
Austen, Charles (s. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 133, 185 -86, 393
Austen, Edward (changed his name to Knight), 8, 14 - 15, 47, 92 et seq., 95, 99, 108 -
09, 114, 120, 133, 146, 165, 180, 184 -85, 189 -94, 199, 204 -06, 210, 239, 240. See Knight, Edward
Austen, Edward (s. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 92, 108, 113, 120, 145, 190 -92. See Knight, Edward
Austen, Eliza (= Eliza de Feuillide, née Hancock; wife of Henry Austen), 88 -9, 129, 133 - 34, 148, 150 -53, 185, 212 -13, 243, 248, 262 -65, 270
Austen, Elizabeth ( née Bridges; wife of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 47, 92 et seq., 99, 108 -09, 112, 125, 133 -34, 165 -66, 185, 189, 192
Austen, Fanny (d. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight; wife of Sir Edward Knatchbull), 92, 108, 113, 184 85, 189 -90, 192, 197, 208, 210, 216, 219, 225, 239.
See Knight, Fanny
Austen, Frances (= "Fanny," d. of Charles Austen), 239, 317
Austen,
Frances
( née Palmer; wife of Charles Austen), 192, 239, 253-54, 309
Austen, Francis (= Sir Francis Austen), 10, 15 - 16, 106, 120 -21, 134 -35, 162 -63, 166 -68, 179 -83, 192, 199, 209, 239, 241, 243, 247 -49, 254, 315, 355 -56, 361, 390
Austen, Francis (s. of Sir Francis Austen), 192, 239
Austen, Reverend George, 6 -14, 18 -19, 25, 27, 30, 50, 60 -1, 92 -3, 95, 99 -100, 105,
- 403 -
224 -25, 133, 145, 148 -52, 162 -63, 288
Austen, George ("Dordy"; s. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 92 et seq., 106 -09, 120, 190 -92, 252
Austen, Harriet (d. of Charles Austen), 239, 317, 390
Austen, Henry (s. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 109
Austen, Henry, 8, 10, 13 -15, 21 -3, 27, 39, 61 -4, 67, 88 -90, 105 -07, 119, 133 -34, 148, 150 -53, 180, 185, 191, 195, 213, 215, 218, 225, 241 -49, 251, 255 -56, 263 -64, 278 79, 310, 318 -21, 325, 328 -29, 333 35, 350, 361 -63, 370 -72, 374, 391 -98
Austen, James, 8, 14, 21 -2, 46 -8, 59, 89 -90, 94 -5, 97, 107, 117, 123 -24, 129, 145 -
46, 152, 163, 179 -81, 183 -85, 190, 200, 206 -08, 241 -46, 254, 263, 288, 319 -20, 889, 390, 391 -94
Austen, Jane ( 1775-1817), 9 passim
Collection of Letters, 33
Elinor and Marianne, 49, 63
Emma, 37, 97, 136, 148, 193, 207 -08, 282 -304, 318, 319, 323 -25, 329 -34, 358 -59, 370, 387 -88
First Impressions, 49, 60 -3, 88, 148, 212, 219
The History of England, 30, 67
Lady Susan, 149 -50, 169 -76, 240
Lesley Castle, 30
Letters, 197 et seq.
Love and Friendship, 28 - 30, 124, 243, 356
Mansfield Park, 128, 136, 148, 161, 172, 187 -88, 193, 207 -08, 240, 243, 248, 255 -
83, 298, 310, 318 -19, 323 -24, 329 -31, 334 -36, 359, 370, 382, 387 -90
Miss Catherine (= Northanger Abbey), 397
Northanger Abbey (originally Susan), 13, 44 -5, 56, 63 -4, 105, 135 -44, 148 -49, 200, 205, 212, 256, 281, 338, 370, 378, 397
Persuasion, 13, 52, 63, 75, 136, 148, 151, 168, 193, 207 -08, 282 -83, 335 -57, 373, 377 -79, 382, 387 -88, 397
Pride and Prejudice, 52 -3, 60 -1,
63 -4, 94, 135, 148 -50, 187, 193, 199, 212, 219 -20, 222 -45, 247 49, 256 -58, 278, 281 -83, 318, 321, 324, 331 -36, 350, 356 59, 367, 370, 373, 388
Sanditon, 41, 56, 201, 283, 349, 378 -88
Sense and Sensibility, 62 -4, 67 -85, 136, 148 -50, 182, 212, 215, 218 -19, 240 -42, 247, 278, 318 19, 359, 388
The Watsons, 149, 153 -61, 170, 379
Austen, John (s. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 189
Austen, Lizzie (d. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 190, 248, 250 -53
Austen, Louisa (d. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 165, 185, 253
Austen, Marianne (d. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 133, 185, 239, 248, 250 52
Austen,
Mary
( née Gibson; wife of Francis Austen), 134 -35, 167-68, 177 -81, 192, 239
Austen,
Mary
( née Lloyd; second wife of James Austen), 59, 94 -5, 99, 106 -07, 112 -
13, 121 -23, 125, 129, 134, 145 -46, 186, 191, 208, 241, 246, 255, 309, 372, 392, 394
Austen, Mary Jane (d. of Francis Austen), 192, 209, 239
- 404 -
Austen, Philadelphia (Mrs. Hancock, aunt of Jane), 17 et seq.
Austen, William (s. of Edward Austen, afterwards Edward Knight), 92, 109, 186, 194
Austen, Maunde and Tilson, Messrs., 334
Barret, Eaton Stannard, 279 -80
Bath,
90
et seq., 108 et seq., 124 et seq., 133, 145
Benn, Miss, 241 -42
Berquin's
Ami des Enfants, 23
Bertie, Admiral, 180
-----, Catherine, 180
Bessborough, Lady, 219
Bigeon, Madame, 244, 248 -49, 335, 391
Bigg, Alethea, 25, 145, 253, 373 -74, 392
Bigg, Catherine, 25, 99, 145
Bigg, Elizabeth, 25
Bigg, Harrison, 25
Bigge, Mr., 57
Bigg-Wither, Harrison, 146 -47, 357, 376
Blackall, Mr., 96 -7, 247
Blackall, Mrs. ( née Lewis), 247
Blake, Captain, 229
Bolton, Lord, 95
Bon Ton ( David Garrick), 22
Book Societies, 240
Bowen, Mr., 134
Brabourne, Lord, 356
Bradley, Prof., 228, 258, 336
Bramston, Mrs., 121
Bridges, Sir Brooke, 47
Bridges, Elizabeth (= Mrs. Edward Austen, afterwards Knight), q.v.
Brieux, Admiral, 120
Brontë, Charlotte, 81, 137
Brontië, Emily, 235
Brown, Lancelot (Capability Brown), 66
Brydges, Sir Egerton, 45, 125
Buchanan, Mrs. (= Mrs. Warren Hastings), 17 -18
Burney,
Fanny.
See d'Arblay, Mine.
Burns, Robert, 201, 361
Busby, Mrs., 127
Byron, George Gordon, 173, 196, 201 -02, 266, 270, 318
Cadell, publisher, 60 -2, 88, 219
Cage, Mrs., 351
-----, Fanny, 364
Camilla, 49 - 57
Capotte, Jean, Comte de Feuillide. See de Feuillide
Carlton House, 321 et seq.
Castaway, The, 141
- 405 -
Castle of Otranto, 102
Castle Rackrent, 218
Cawley, Mrs. ( née Cooper), 11
Cecil, Lord David, 258, 302
Cecilia, 49 -53
Chamberlayne, Miss, 164
Chapman, Dr., 187, 197
Charlotte, Princess, 326
Chawton,
19
et seq.
Clandestine Marriage ( Garrick), 251
Clarissa, 41 -2
Clarke, Rev. J. S., 321 -27, 362, 383
Cleopatra, H.M.S., 215
Cobbett, William, 310
Cooke, Reverend Samuel, 281
Cooper, Edward, 190, 196
Cooper family, 127
Cooper, Jane ( née Leigh), 11 -12
Cooper, Jane (= Mrs. Williams), 11 -12, 33, 37, 107
Cooper, Reverend Dr., 11, 48
Corsair, The, 201
Cosway, Richard, 36
Coulthard, Mrs., 94
Courtney, Reverend John, 64
Cowley, Hannah, 22
Cowper, William, 14, 77 -8, 99, 182, 201 -02, 252, 255
Crabbe, George, 202 -04, 280 -81
Craven, Lord, 47, 59
Craven, Mrs. ("The Cruel Mrs. C."), 26, 47, 169, 174
Crosby and Sons,
publishers, 148, 153, 205, 370
Cumberland, Duchess of, 20
Curtis, Mr., 390
d'Arblay, Madame ( née Fanny Burney), 21, 49 et seq., 178, 218, 362
D'Auvergne, Captain, 195
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