Complete Works of Jane Austen (425 page)

The end of March brought a still more flattering tribute to Jane’s growing fame, in the shape of an article on
Emma
in the
Quarterly Review
. The
Review
, though dated October 1815, did not appear till March of the following year, and the writer of the article was none other than Sir Walter Scott.

The honour of an article in the
Quarterly
was no doubt mainly due to the fact that Jane had published her latest book with Mr. Murray, its owner. Though the praise contained in the article would scarcely satisfy an enthusiastic admirer of her works, Miss Austen felt she had no cause to complain. In thanking Mr. Murray for lending her a copy of the
Review
, she writes: —

The authoress of
Emma
has no reason, I think, to complain of her treatment in it, except in the total omission of
Mansfield Park
. I cannot but be sorry that so clever a man as the Reviewer of
Emma
should consider it as unworthy of being noticed. You will be pleased to hear that I have received the Prince’s thanks for the
handsome
copy I sent him of
Emma
. Whatever he may think of
my
share of the work, yours seems to have been quite right.

The fact that she was honoured with a notice in the
Quarterly
did not prevent the author from collecting and leaving on record the more domestic criticisms of her family and friends.

Opinions of
Emma
.

Captain F. Austen
liked it extremely, observing that though there might be more wit in
P. and P.
and an higher morality in
M. P.
, yet altogether, on account of its peculiar air of Nature throughout, he preferred it to either.

Mrs. Frank Austen
liked and admired it very much indeed, but must still prefer
P. and P.

Mrs. J. Bridges
preferred it to all the others.

Miss Sharp.
— Better than
M. P.
, but not so well as
P. and P.
Pleased with the heroine for her originality, delighted with Mr. K., and called Mrs. Elton beyond praise — dissatisfied with Jane Fairfax.

Cassandra.
— Better than
P. and P.
but not so well as
M. P.

Fanny K.
— Not so well as either
P. and P.
or
M. P.
Could not bear Emma herself. Mr. Knightley delightful. Should like J. F. if she knew more of her.

Mr. and Mrs. James Austen
did not like it so well as either of the three others. Language different from the others; not so easily read.

Edward
preferred it to
M. P.
only. Mr. K. liked by everybody.

Miss Bigg.
— Not equal to either
P. and P.
or
M. P.
Objected to the sameness of the subject (Matchmaking) all through. Too much of Mrs. Elton and H. Smith. Language superior to the others.

My Mother
thought it more entertaining than
M. P.
, but not so interesting as
P. and P.
No characters in it equal to Lady Catherine or Mr. Collins.

Miss Lloyd
thought it as clever as either of the others, but did not receive so much pleasure from it as from
P. and P.
and
M. P.

Fanny Cage
liked it very much indeed, and classed it between
P. and P.
and
M. P.

Mrs. and Miss Craven
liked it very much, but not so much as the others.

Mr. Sherer
did not think it equal to either
M. P.
(which he liked the best of all) or
P. and P.
Displeased with my pictures of clergymen.

Miss Bigg
, on reading it a second time, liked Miss Bates much better than at first, and expressed herself as liking all the people of Highbury in general, except Harriet Smith, but could not help still thinking
her
too silly in her loves.

The Family at Upton Gray
all very much amused with it. Miss Bates a great favourite with Mrs. Beaufoy.

Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Perrot
saw many beauties in it, but could not think it equal to
P. and P.
Darcy and Elizabeth had spoilt them for anything else. Mr. K., however, an excellent character; Emma better luck than a matchmaker often has; pitied Jane Fairfax; thought Frank Churchill better treated than he deserved.

Countess Craven
admired it very much, but did not think it equal to
P. and P.
which she ranked as the very first of its sort.

Mrs. Guiton
thought it too natural to be interesting.

Mrs. Digweed
did not like it so well as the others: in fact if she had not known the author would hardly have got through it.

Miss Terry
admired it very much, particularly Mrs. Elton.

Henry Sanford
— very much pleased with it — delighted with Miss Bates, but thought Mrs. Elton the best-drawn character in the book.
Mansfield Park
, however, still his favourite.

Mr. Haden
—
quite
delighted with it. Admired the character of Emma.

Miss Isabella Herries
did not like it. Objected to my exposing the sex in the character of the heroine. Convinced that I had meant Mrs. and Miss Bates for some acquaintance of theirs. People whom I never heard of before.

Mrs. Harriet Moore
admired it very much, but
M. P.
still her favourite of all.

Countess of Morley
delighted with it.

Mr. Cockerell
liked it so little that Fanny would not send me his opinion.

Mrs. Dickson
did not much like it — thought it very inferior to
P. and P.
Liked it the less from there being a Mr. and Mrs. Dixon in it.

Mrs. Brandreth
thought the third volume superior to anything I had ever written — quite beautiful!

Mr. B. Lefroy
thought that if there had been more incident it would be equal to any of the others. The characters quite as well-drawn and supported as in any, and from being more every-day ones, the more entertaining. Did not like the heroine so well as any of the others. Miss Bates excellent, but rather too much of her. Mr. and Mrs. Elton admirable and John Knightley a sensible man.

Mrs. B. Lefroy
ranked
Emma
as a composition with
S. and S.
Not so
brilliant
as
P. and P.
nor so
equal
as
M. P.
Preferred Emma herself to all the heroines. The characters, like all the others, admirably well drawn and supported — perhaps rather less strongly marked than some, but only the more natural for that reason. Mr. Knightley, Mrs. Elton, and Miss Bates her favourites. Thought one or two of the conversations too long.

Mrs. Lefroy
preferred it to
M. P.
, but liked
M. P.
the least of all.

Mr. Fowle
read only the first and last chapters, because he had heard it was not interesting.

Mrs. Lutley Sclater
liked it very much, better than
M. P.
, and thought I had ‘brought it all about very cleverly in the last volume.’

Mrs. C. Cage
wrote thus to Fanny: ‘A great many thanks for the loan of
Emma
, which I am delighted with. I like it better than any. Every character is thoroughly kept up. I must enjoy reading it again with Charles. Miss Bates is incomparable, but I was nearly killed with those precious treasures. They are unique, and really with more fun than I can express. I am at Highbury all day, and I can’t help feeling I have just got into a new set of acquaintance. No one writes such good sense, and so very comfortable.’

Mrs. Wroughton
did not like it so well as
P. and P.
Thought the authoress wrong, in such times as these, to draw such clergymen as Mr. Collins and Mr. Elton.

Sir J. Langham
thought it much inferior to the others.

Mr. Jeffrey
(of the
Edinburgh Review
) was kept up by it three nights.

Miss Murden.
— Certainly inferior to all the others.

Captain C. Austen
wrote: ‘
Emma
arrived in time to a moment. I am delighted with her, more so I think than even with my favourite,
Pride and Prejudice
, and have read it three times in the passage.’

Mrs. D. Dundas
thought it very clever, but did not like it so well as either of the others.

We do not know how Mr. Jeffrey’s involuntary tribute of admiration was conveyed to the author, but we are sure she must have valued it very highly. It was not the first time she had collected a miscellaneous set of opinions on her work. The two following critiques on
Mansfield Park
— apparently from two ladies of the same family — will illustrate the sort of want of comprehension from which the author had to suffer when she got outside the limits of her own immediate circle.

Mrs. B.
— Much pleased with it: particularly with the character of Fanny as being so very natural. Thought Lady Bertram like herself. Preferred it to either of the others; but imagined
that
might be want of taste, as she did not understand wit.

Mrs. Augusta B.
owned that she thought
S. and S.
and
P. and P.
downright nonsense, but expected to like
M. P.
better, and having finished the first volume, flattered herself she had got through the worst.

Meanwhile, the banking-house of Austen, Maunde, and Tilson, had closed its doors; and on March 23, 1816, Henry Austen was declared a bankrupt: the immediate cause of the collapse being the failure of an Alton bank which the London firm had backed. No personal extravagance was charged against Henry; but he had the unpleasant sensation of starting life over again, and of having caused serious loss to several of his family, especially his brother Edward and Mr. Leigh Perrot, who had gone sureties for him on his appointment as Receiver-General for Oxfordshire. Jane herself was fortunate in losing no more than thirteen pounds — a portion of the profits of
Mansfield Park
.

Henry Austen possessed an extraordinary elasticity of nature which made a rebound from depression easy — indeed, almost inevitable — in his case. He returned at once to his original intention of taking Orders, as if the intervening military and banking career had been nothing more than an interruption of his normal course. Nor was it merely perfunctory performance of clerical duties to which he looked forward: he was in earnest, and began by making use of his former classical knowledge to take up a serious study of the New Testament in the original language. He seems to have been in advance of his age in this respect; for when he went to be examined by the Bishop, that dignitary, after asking him such questions as he thought desirable, put his hand on a book which lay near him on the table, and which happened to be a Greek Testament, and said: ‘As for
this
book, Mr. Austen, I dare say it is some years since either you or I looked into it.’

Henry Austen became in time an earnest preacher of the evangelical school, and was for many years perpetual curate of Bentley, near Alton. He did not marry the ‘Hanwell favourite,’ but found a wife after some years in Miss Eleanor Jackson, who survived him.

It must have been somewhere about this time that Jane Austen succeeded in recovering the MS. of
Northanger Abbey
. An unsuccessful attempt to secure the publication of the novel in the year 1809 has already been noticed; but we learn from the
Memoir
that after four works of hers had been published, and somewhat widely circulated, one of her brothers (acting for her) negotiated with the publisher who had bought it, and found him very willing to receive back his money, and 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
.

Meanwhile, Jane had been for some months engaged on
Persuasion
. It was begun before she went to London in the autumn of 1815 for the publication of
Emma;
but that visit and all that happened to her during the winter must certainly have interrupted its composition, and possibly modified its tone. It is less high-spirited and more tender in its description of a stricken heart than anything she had attempted before.

In May, Cassandra and Jane left Chawton to spend three weeks at Cheltenham, stopping with their brother at Steventon, and with the Fowles at Kintbury on the way, and again at Steventon on their return. Jane must have been decidedly out of health, for the change in her did not escape the notice of her friends. But whatever was the exact state of her health during the first half of this year, it did not prevent her from being able, on July 18, to write ‘Finis’ at the end of the first draft of
Persuasion;
and thereby hangs an interesting tale, which we cannot do better than relate in the words of the
Memoir
.

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 Captain Harville and Anne Elliot, overheard by Captain Wentworth, by which the two faithful lovers were at last led to understand each other’s feelings. The tenth and eleventh chapters of
Persuasion
, then, rather than the actual winding-up of the story, contain the latest of her printed compositions — her last contribution to the entertainment of the public. Perhaps it may be thought that she has seldom written anything more brilliant; and that, independent of the original manner in which the
dénouement
is brought about, the pictures of Charles Musgrove’s good-natured boyishness and of his wife’s jealous selfishness would have been incomplete without these finishing strokes. The cancelled chapter exists in manuscript. It is certainly inferior to the two which were substituted for it; but it was such as some writers and some readers might have been contented with; and it contained touches which scarcely any other hand could have given, the suppression of which may be almost a matter of regret.