Complete Works of Jane Austen (388 page)
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Authors: Jane Austen
Since these pages were in type, I have read with astonishment the strange misrepresentation of my aunt’s manners given by Miss Mitford in a letter which appears in her lately-published Life, vol. i. . Miss Mitford does not profess to have known Jane Austen herself, but to report what had been told her by her mother. Having stated that her mother ‘
before her marriage
’ was well acquainted with Jane Austen and her family, she writes thus:—’Mamma says that she was
then
the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers.’ The editor of Miss Mitford’s Life very properly observes in a note how different this description is from ‘every other account of Jane Austen from whatever quarter.’ Certainly it is so totally at variance with the modest simplicity of character which I have attributed to my aunt, that if it could be supposed to have a semblance of truth, it must be equally injurious to her memory and to my trustworthiness as her biographer. Fortunately I am not driven to put my authority in competition with that of Miss Mitford, nor to ask which ought to be considered the better witness in this case; because I am able to prove by a reference to dates that Miss Mitford must have been under a mistake, and that her mother could not possibly have known what she was supposed to have reported; inasmuch as Jane Austen, at the time referred to, was a little girl.
Mrs. Mitford was the daughter of Dr. Russell, Rector of Ashe, a parish adjoining Steventon, so that the families of Austen and Russell must at that time have been known to each other. But the date assigned by Miss Mitford for the termination of the acquaintance is the time of her mother’s marriage. This took place in October 1785, when Jane, who had been born in December 1775, was not quite ten years old. In point of fact, however, Miss Russell’s opportunities of observing Jane Austen must have come to an end still earlier: for upon Dr. Russell’s death, in January 1783, his widow and daughter removed from the neighbourhood, so that all intercourse between the families ceased when Jane was little more than seven years old.
All persons who undertake to narrate from hearsay things which are supposed to have taken place before they were born are liable to error, and are apt to call in imagination to the aid of memory: and hence it arises that many a fancy piece has been substituted for genuine history.
I do not care to correct the inaccurate account of Jane Austen’s manners in after life: because Miss Mitford candidly expresses a doubt whether she had not been misinformed on that point.
Nov
. 17, 1869.
CONTENTS
CHRONOLOGY OF JANE AUSTEN’S LIFE
CHAPTER III. WARREN HASTINGS AND THE HANCOCKS
CHAPTER VII. AUTHORSHIP AND CORRESPONDENCE
CHAPTER VIII. GODMERSHAM AND STEVENTON
CHAPTER IX. THE LEIGH PERROTS AND BATH
CHAPTER XII. FROM BATH TO SOUTHAMPTON
CHAPTER XIII. FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO CHAWTON
CHAPTER XIV. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
CHAPTER XV. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
PREFACE
Since 1870-1, when J. E. Austen Leigh published his
Memoir of Jane Austen
, considerable additions have been made to the stock of information available for her biographers. Of these fresh sources of knowledge the set of letters from Jane to Cassandra, edited by Lord Brabourne, has been by far the most important. These letters are invaluable as
mémoires pour servir;
although they cover only the comparatively rare periods when the two sisters were separated, and although Cassandra purposely destroyed many of the letters likely to prove the most interesting, from a distaste for publicity.
Some further correspondence, and many incidents in the careers of two of her brothers, may be read in
Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers
, by J. H. Hubback and Edith C. Hubback; while Miss Constance Hill has been able to add several family traditions to the interesting topographical information embodied in her
Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends
. Nor ought we to forget the careful research shown in other biographies of the author, especially that by Mr. Oscar Fay Adams.
During the last few years, we have been fortunate enough to be able to add to this store; and every existing MS. or tradition preserved by the family, of which we have any knowledge, has been placed at our disposal.
It seemed, therefore, to us that the time had come when a more complete chronological account of the novelist’s life might be laid before the public, whose interest in Jane Austen (as we readily acknowledge) has shown no signs of diminishing, either in England or in America.
The
Memoir
must always remain the one firsthand account of her, resting on the authority of a nephew who knew her intimately and that of his two sisters. We could not compete with its vivid personal recollections; and the last thing we should wish to do, even were it possible, would be to supersede it. We believe, however, that it needs to be supplemented, not only because so much additional material has been brought to light since its publication, but also because the account given of their aunt by her nephew and nieces could be given only from their own point of view, while the incidents and characters fall into a somewhat different perspective if the whole is seen from a greater distance. Their knowledge of their aunt was during the last portion of her life, and they knew her best of all in her last year, when her health was failing and she was living in much seclusion; and they were not likely to be the recipients of her inmost confidences on the events and sentiments of her youth.
Hence the emotional and romantic side of her nature — a very real one — has not been dwelt upon. No doubt the Austens were, as a family, unwilling to show their deeper feelings, and the sad end of Jane’s one romance would naturally tend to intensify this dislike of expression; but the feeling was there, and it finally found utterance in her latest work, when, through Anne Elliot, she claimed for women the right of ‘loving longest when existence or when hope is gone.’
Then, again, her nephew and nieces hardly knew how much she had gone into society, or how much, with a certain characteristic aloofness, she had enjoyed it. Bath, either when she was the guest of her uncle and aunt or when she was a resident; London, with her brother Henry and his wife, and the rather miscellaneous society which they enjoyed; Godmersham, with her brother Edward and his county neighbours in East Kent; — these had all given her many opportunities of studying the particular types which she blended into her own creations.
A third point is the uneventful nature of the author’s life, which, as we think, has been a good deal exaggerated. Quiet it certainly was; but the quiet life of a member of a large family in the England of that date was compatible with a good deal of stirring incident, happening, if not to herself, at all events to those who were nearest to her, and who commanded her deepest sympathies.
We hope therefore that our narrative, with all its imperfections and its inevitable repetition of much that has already been published, will at least be of use in removing misconceptions, in laying some new facts before the reader, and in placing others in a fresh light. It is intended as a narrative, and not as a piece of literary criticism; for we should not care to embark upon the latter in competition with biographers and essayists who have a better claim to be heard.
Both in the plan and in the execution of our work we have received much valuable help from another member of the family, Mary A. Austen Leigh.
An arrangement courteously made by the owners of the copyright has procured for us a free and ample use of the Letters as edited by Lord Brabourne; while the kindness of Mr. J. G. Nicholson of Castlefield House, Sturton-by-Scawby, Lincolnshire, has opened a completely new source of information in the letters which passed between the Austens and their kinsmen of the half-blood — Walters of Kent and afterwards of Lincolnshire. Miss Jane Austen, granddaughter of Admiral Charles Austen, and Miss Margaret Bellas, great-granddaughter of James Austen, are so good as to allow us to make a fuller use of their family documents than was found possible by the author of the
Memoir;
while Mr. J. H. Hubback permits us to draw freely upon the
Sailor Brothers
, and Captain E. L. Austen, R.N., upon his MSS. Finally, we owe to Admiral Ernest Rice kind permission to have the photograph taken, from which the reproduction of his Zoffany portrait is made into a frontispiece for this volume. We hope that any other friends who have helped us will accept this general expression of our gratitude.
W. A. L.
R. A. A. L.
April
1913.
CHRONOLOGY OF JANE AUSTEN’S LIFE
1775,
Dec. 16
Birth, at Steventon.
1779,
June
Charles John Austen born.
1780,
July
James Austen matriculated at Oxford (St. John’s).
1782
Jane and Cassandra at Oxford under care of Mrs. Cawley (sister of Dr. Cooper).
1783
Mrs. Cawley having moved to Southampton, Jane nearly died there of a fever.
Mrs. Cooper (her aunt) took the infection and died (October).
1784
The Rivals
acted at Steventon.
1784
or 1785
Jane and Cassandra left Mrs. Latournelle’s school at Reading, and returned home.
1786
Eliza Comtesse de Feuillide came to England.
Birth of her son.
1787
James Austen in France.
1788,
July
Henry Austen matriculated at Oxford (St. John’s).
Francis Austen went to sea.
1791
Edward Austen married Elizabeth Bridges.
1792,
March
James Austen married Anne Mathew.
1794,
Feb.
Comte de Feuillide guillotined.
1795
(?)
Cassandra engaged to Thomas Fowle.
May
Mrs. James Austen died.
1795
-6
Mr. Tom Lefroy at Ashe.
1796
First Impressions
(
Pride and Prejudice
) begun.
Jane subscribed to
Camilla
.
1797,
Jan.
James Austen married Mary Lloyd.
Feb.
Thomas Fowle died of fever in the W. Indies.
Nov.
Jane, with mother and sister, went to Bath.
First Impressions
refused by Cadell.
Sense and Sensibility
(already sketched in
Elinor and Marianne
) begun.
Dec.
Henry Austen married Eliza de Feuillide.
1798,
Aug.
Lady Williams (Jane Cooper) killed in a carriage accident.
