Tucker, George Holbert, A History of Jane Austen’s Family (Stroud, Glos.: Sutton, 1998), previously published as A Goodly Heritage: A History of Jane Austen’s Family (Manchester: Carcanet New Press, 1983).
Criticism
Corley, T. A. B., ‘The Earliest Non-Family Life of Jane Austen’, Notes and Queries, 45 (1998), 187–8.
Kaplan, Deborah, Jane Austen Among Women (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
Kirkham, Margaret, ‘The Austen Portraits and the Received Biography’, in Janet Todd (ed.), Jane Austen: New Perspectives (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers Inc., 1983).
Le Faye, Deirdre, ‘Sanditon: Jane Austen’s Manuscript and her Niece’s Continuation’, Review of English Studies, NS 38 (1987), 56–61.
Lynch, Deidre, ‘At Home with Jane Austen’, in Deidre Lynch and William B. Warner (eds.), Cultural Institutions of the Novel (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1996).
—— (ed.), Janeites: Austen’s Disciples and Devotees (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).
Marshall, Mary Gaither (ed.), Jane Austen’s Sanditon: A Continuation by her Niece; together with ‘Reminiscences of Aunt Jane’ by Anna Lefroy (Chicago: Chiron Press, 1983).
McAleer, John, ‘What a Biographer Can Learn about Jane Austen from Her Juvenilia’, in J. David Grey (ed.), Jane Austen’s Beginnings: The Juvenilia and Lady Susan (Ann Arbor, Mich., and London: UMI Research Press, 1989).
Mcdonald, Irene B., ‘Contemporary Biography: Some Problems’, Persuasions, 20 (1998), 61 -8.
Oliphant, M. O. W., ‘The Ethics of Biography’, Contemporary Review, 44 (1883, 76–93.
Sabor, Peter, ‘James Edward Austen, Anna Lefroy, and the Interpolations to Jane Austen’s “Volume the Third”’, Notes and Queries, 245 (2000), 304–6.
Townsend Warner, Sylvia, Jane Austen, British Council, Writers and their Work, No. 17 (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1951 ; rev. 1957 and 1964).
Wiltshire, John, Recreating Jane Austen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
Woolf, Virginia, ‘Jane Austen’, in The Common Reader, First Series (London: Hogarth Press, 1925), based on Woolf’s earlier review, ‘Jane Austen at Sixty’, in The Nation and Athenaeum, 15 Dec. 1923.
Further Reading in Oxford World’s Classics
Austen, Jane, Catharine and Other Writings, ed. Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas Murray.
—— Emma, ed. James Kinsley.
—— Mansfield Park, ed. James Kinsley
—— Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon, ed. John Davie
—— Persuasion, ed. John Davie.
—— Pride and Prejudice, ed. James Kinsley.
—— Sense and Sensibility, ed. James Kinsley.
Beeton, Isabella, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, ed. Nicola Humble.
Burney, Fanny, Camilla, ed. Edward A. Bloom and Lillian D. Bloom.
—— Cecilia, ed. Peter Sabor and Margaret Anne Doody.
—— Evelina, ed. Edward A. Bloom.
Edgeworth, Maria, The Absentee, ed. W. J. McCormack and Kim Walker.
—— Belinda, ed. Kathryn Kirkpatrick.
—— Castle Rackrent, ed. George Watson.
Ferrier, Susan, Marriage, ed. Herbert Foltinek and Kathryn Kirkpatrick.
Gaskell, Elizabeth, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, ed. Angus Easson.
Opie, Amelia, Adeline Mowbray, ed. Shelley King and John B. Pierce.
Scott, Sir Walter, The Antiquary, ed. Nicola Watson.
—— Waverley, ed. Claire Lamont.
Staël, Mme de, Corinne, trans. and ed. Sylvia Raphael.
A CHRONOLOGY OF THE AUSTEN FAMILY
1764
26 April, Marriage of the Revd George Austen and Cassandra Leigh.
1765
13 February, James Austen, JEAL’s father and JA’s eldest brother, born at Deane.
1766
26 August, George Austen the younger born at Deane.
1767
7 October, Edward Austen born at Deane.
1768
July/August, Austen family move to Steventon.
1771
8 June, Henry Austen born at Steventon.
1773
9 January, Cassandra Austen born at Steventon; 23 March, the Revd Austen becomes Rector of Deane as well as Steventon; Pupils are boarded at Steventon from now until 1796.
1774
23 April, Francis (Frank) Austen born at Steventon.
1775
16 December, JA born at Steventon.
1779
23 June, Charles Austen born at Steventon.
1781
Marriage of JA’s cousin, Eliza Hancock, to Jean-François Capot de Feuillide, in France.
1783
Edward Austen adopted by Mr and Mrs Thomas Knight of Godmersham, Kent.
1785–6
JA and Cassandra attend the Abbey School, Reading.
1786
Eliza de Feuillide’s son Hastings born.
1787
JA begins writing juvenilia.
1787–9
Amateur theatricals are performed at Steventon.
1789
Spring, the Lloyd family rent Deane parsonage.
1791
27 December, marriage of Edward Austen and Elizabeth Bridges.
1792
The Lloyds leave Deane for Ibthorpe; marriage of James Austen and Anne Mathew and their removal to Deane parsonage; (?) Winter, Cassandra engaged to the Revd Tom Fowle.
1793
23 January, Edward Austen’s first child, Fanny, born; 15 April, James Austen’s first child, Anna, born; 3 June, JA writes last item of juvenilia.
1794
M. de Feuillide guillotined in Paris; death of Edward Austen’s adopted father Thomas Knight.
1795
JA probably writes ‘Elinor and Marianne’; death of Anne Mathew Austen at Deane; Anna sent to live at Steventon; December, Tom Lefroy visits Ashe rectory.
1796
January, Tom Lefroy leaves Ashe for London; Tom Fowle sails for West Indies; October, JA begins ‘First Impressions’ (finished August 1797).
1797
Marriage of James Austen and Mary Lloyd; Anna returns to live at Deane; February, Tom Fowle dies of fever at San Domingo; 1 November, the Revd Austen unsuccessfully offers ‘First Impressions’ to Cadell; JA begins Sense and Sensibility; 31 December, marriage of Henry Austen and his cousin Eliza de Feuillide.
1798
JA begins writing ‘Susan’ (Northanger Abbey); 17 November, James’s son James Edward (JEAL), JA’s future biographer, is born at Deane.
1799
Mrs Leigh Perrot, JA’s aunt, charged with theft and committed to Ilchester Gaol.
1800
Mrs Leigh Perrot tried at Taunton and acquitted; December, the Revd Austen decides to retire and move to Bath.
1801
Henry Austen sets up as banker and army agent in London; May, the Austens leave Steventon and settle in Bath; the family story of JA’s seaside romance derives from holidays spent in the West Country between now and autumn 1804; Eliza de Feuillide Austen’s son Hastings dies.
1802
2 December, Harris Bigg-Wither proposes to JA; JA revises ‘Susan’ (Northanger Abbey).
1803
JA sells ‘Susan’ to Crosby and Co.
1804–5
JA perhaps writing ‘The Watsons’ and ‘Lady Susan’; 16 December 1804, JA’s early friend Mrs Lefroy of Ashe killed in a riding accident.
1805
21 January, death of the Revd Austen in Bath; 16 April, death of Mrs Lloyd at Ibthorpe; Martha Lloyd joins the Austen household; 18 June, James Austen’s youngest child Caroline born at Steventon.
1806
October, the Austens take lodgings in Southampton with Frank Austen and his new wife.
1807
March, the Austens move into house in Castle Square, Southampton.
1808
10
October, death of Edward Austen’s wife, Elizabeth.
1809
5 April, JA attempts unsuccessfully to secure publication of ‘Susan’; the Austens move to Chawton Cottage, owned by JA’s brother Edward.
1810
Sense and Sensibility accepted for publication by Thomas Egerton.
1811
February, JA planning Mansfield Park; March, JA staying with Henry in London and correcting proofs of Sense and Sensibility; 30 October, Sense and Sensibility published; ?Winter, JA begins revising ‘First Impressions’ as Pride and Prejudice.
1812
Death of Mrs Thomas Knight; Edward Austen officially takes name of Knight; Autumn, JA sells copyright of Pride and Prejudice to Egerton.
1813
28 January, Pride and Prejudice published; 25 April, Eliza de Feuillide Austen dies; ?July, JA finishes Mansfield Park; Anna Austen engaged to Ben Lefroy; November, second editions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.
1814
21 January, JA begins Emma; 9 May, Mansfield Park published by Egerton; 8 November, marriage of Anna Austen and Ben Lefroy.
1815
29 March, Emma finished; July, Mary Lloyd Austen and Caroline Austen stay at Chawton; 8 August, JA begins Persuasion; Anna and Ben Lefroy move to Wyards, near Chawton; October, JA in London nursing Henry who is ill; 13 November, JA visits the Prince Regent’s Library at Carlton House; December, Emma published by John Murray.
1816
Spring, JA begins to feel unwell; Henry buys back MS of ‘Susan’, which JA revises (as ‘Catharine’) and intends to offer again for publication; 15 March, Henry’s bank fails and he leaves London; 18 July, first draft of Persuasion finished; 6 August, Persuasion finally completed; second edition of Mansfield Park from Murray; December, Henry ordained and becomes curate of Chawton.
1817
27 January–18 March, JA at work on ‘Sanditon’; 28 March, death of Mr Leigh Perrot, JA’s uncle; 27 April, JA makes her will; 24 May, Cassandra takes JA to Winchester, where they lodge at 8 College Street; 18 July, JA dies in early morning; 24 July, JA buried in Winchester Cathedral; December, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion published together by Murray (dated 1818), with Henry’s ‘Biographical Notice of the Author’.
1819
James Austen, JA’s eldest brother and father of Anna Lefroy, JEAL, and Caroline Austen, dies.
1820
Fanny Knight, eldest child of Edward Austen Knight of Godmersham, marries Sir Edward Knatchbull.
1827
Mrs Austen, JA’s mother, dies.
1828
Frank Austen marries as his second wife Martha Lloyd.
1832–3
Elizabeth Bennet; or, Pride and Prejudice, and the other novels, published in America (Philadelphia).
1833
Bentley’s collected edition of JA’s novels (frequently reprinted until 1882, the Steventon Edition); Henry’s revised ‘Memoir’ prefixed to Sense and Sensibility (1833).
1837
The Revd James Edward Austen takes name of Leigh.
1843
Mrs James Austen (Mary Lloyd) dies; Lady (Francis) Austen (Martha Lloyd) dies; 9 May, Cassandra Austen executes her will.
1845
22 March, Cassandra Austen dies and JA’s manuscripts and letters are divided among the family.
1850
Henry Austen dies.
1852
Admiral Sir Francis Austen sends a letter of JA’s to Eliza Susan Quincy of Boston, Mass.; Edward Austen Knight dies; Charles Austen dies.
1864
Anna Lefroy writes down her ‘Recollections of Aunt Jane’.
1865
Sir Francis Austen dies, the last of JA’s remaining siblings; Recollections of the Vine Hunt by JEAL.
1867
Caroline Austen writes My Aunt Jane Austen: A Memoir (1952).
1870
Memoir of JA by her nephew JEAL.
1871
Second edition of JEAL’s Memoir, with ‘Lady Susan’, ‘The Watsons’, and the cancelled chapter of Persuasion.
1872
Brass Memorial Tablet placed in Winchester Cathedral by JEAL, from the proceeds of the Memoir.
1884
Letters of Jane Austen, edited by her great-nephew Lord Brabourne.
1906
Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers, by J. H. and E. C. Hubback, JA’s great-nephew and great-great niece; first publication of her letters to Frank Austen.
1913
Life and Letters of Jane Austen, by W. and R. A. Austen-Leigh, JA’s great-nephew and great-great nephew.
1920
Personal Aspects of Jane Austen, by Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh, JA’s great-niece.
1940
The Jane Austen Society is founded.
1947
Chawton Cottage, JA’s last home, is purchased by the Jane Austen Memorial Trust.
James Edward Austen-Leigh, a portrait added as a frontispiece to the Memoir, ed. R. W. Chapman (1926)
JAMES EDWARD AUSTEN-LEIGH
A MEMOIR OF JANE AUSTEN (1871)
Jane Austen, steel-engraved portrait by Lizars from a likeness drawn by Mr Andrews of Maidenhead (after Cassandra Austen’s watercolour sketch now in the National Portrait Gallery, London), used as a frontispiece to the first edition of the Memoir (1870)
PREFACE
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.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Introductory Remarks—Birth of Jane Austen—Her Family Connections—Their Influence on her Writings
CHAPTER II
Description of Steventon—Life at Steventon—Changes of Habits and Customs in the last Century
CHAPTER III
Early Compositions—Friends at Ashe—A very old Letter—Lines on the Death of Mrs. Lefroy—Observations on Jane Austen’s Letter-writing—Letters
CHAPTER IV
Removal from Steventon—Residences at Bath and at Southampton—Settling at Chawton
CHAPTER V
Description of Jane Austen’s person, character, and tastes
CHAPTER VI
Habits of Composition resumed after a long interval—First publication—The interest taken by the Author in the success of her Works
CHAPTER VII
Seclusion from the literary world—Notice from the Prince Regent—Correspondence with Mr. Clarke—Suggestions to alter her style of writing
CHAPTER VIII
Slow growth of her fame—III success of first attempts at publication—Two Reviews of her works contrasted
CHAPTER IX
Opinions expressed by eminent persons—Opinions of others of less eminence—Opinion of American readers
CHAPTER X
Ob
servations on the Novels
CHAPTER XI
Declining health of Jane Austen—Elasticity of her spirits—Her resignation and humility—Her death
Postscript
He knew of no one but himself who was inclined to the work. This is no uncommon motive. A man sees something to be done, knows of no one who will do it but himself, and so is driven to the enterprise.
HELPS’ Life of Columbus, ch. i°
CHAPTER I
Introductory Remarks—Birth of Jane Austen—Her Family
Connections—Their Influence on her Writings
MORE than half a century has passed away since I, the youngest of the mourners,1 attended the funeral of my dear aunt Jane in Winchester Cathedral; and now, in my old age, I am asked whether my memory will serve to rescue from oblivion any events of her life or any traits of her character to satisfy the enquiries of a generation of readers who have been born since she died. Of events her life was singularly barren: few changes and no great crisis ever broke the smooth current of its course. Even her fame may be said to have been posthumous: it did not attain to any vigorous life till she had ceased to exist. Her talents did not introduce her to the notice of other writers, or connect her with the literary world, or in any degree pierce through the obscurity of her domestic retirement. I have therefore scarcely any materials for a detailed life of my aunt; but I have a distinct recollection of her person and character; and perhaps many may take an interest in a delineation, if any such can be drawn, of that prolific mind whence sprung the Dashwoods and Bennets, the Bertrams and Woodhouses, the Thorpes and Musgroves,° who have been admitted as familiar guests to the firesides of so many families, and are known there as individually and intimately as if they were living neighbours. Many may care to know whether the moral rectitude, the correct taste, and the warm affections with which she invested her ideal characters, were really existing in the native source whence those ideas flowed, and were actually exhibited by her in the various relations of life. I can indeed bear witness that there was scarcely a charm in her most delightful characters that was not a true reflection of her own sweet temper and loving heart. I was young when we lost her; but the impressions made on the young are deep, and though in the course of fifty years I have forgotten much, I have not forgotten that ‘Aunt Jane’ was the delight of all her nephews and nieces. We did not think of her as being clever, still less as being famous; but we valued her as one always kind, sympathising, and amusing. To all this I am a living witness, but whether I can sketch out such a faint outline of this excellence as shall be perceptible to others may be reasonably doubted. Aided, however, by a few survivors1 who knew her, I will not refuse to make the attempt. I am the more inclined to undertake the task from a conviction that, however little I may have to tell, no one else is left who could tell so much of her.
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