Jane Austen (29 page)
Authors: Valerie Grosvenor Myer
As she settled into the role of professional writer Henry’s house became Jane’s London base and her business office. His experience in financial negotiations was invaluable to her and it was he who dealt on her behalf with publishers.
Before returning to Hampshire Jane wrote another letter to Cassandra. Among the guests at Eliza’s smart musical evening had been old Mrs Knight’s brother Mr Wyndham Knatchbull. His impressions of the party had been relayed to Jane, whom he had described as a pleasing-looking young woman. Jane was thirty-five. She sighed that although she could not now hope for better in the way of admiration she was thankful to have had it continue a few years longer. Women will know what she meant.
At the end of May she was back at Chawton and Cassandra still at Godmersham. Life was back to visits, gardening and gossip. Always interested in weddings, Jane noted that Colonel Orde had married their distant cousin Margaret Beckford, the Marchioness of Douglas’s sister. The newspapers were saying Miss Beckford had been disinherited, but Jane opined slyly that Orde would not have married her without ‘a handsome independence of her own’. Miss Beckford’s father was certainly displeased. The flower seeds were coming up nicely except for the mignonette. The young peony at the foot of the fir tree had just blown and was looking handsome; the shrubbery border would soon be gay with pinks and sweet williams; the columbines were already in bloom. The syringas were coming out. A good crop of Orleans plums was expected but not many greengages.
Frank and his Mary were at Cowes and Jane and her mother thought of inviting them to Chawton on their way to Steventon. Mrs Austen offered to give up her room to them but that would leave only the best bedroom to accommodate two nursemaids and three children. Finding enough bedrooms for brothers and their growing families was as serious and recurrent a problem as transport.
Brother James was most attentive to his mother, and frequently took his daughters, Anna and Caroline, on horseback, for the lanes were too rough for a carriage, to see their grandmother and aunts. Anna was now eighteen and the seventeen years’ gap between her and her Aunt Jane seemed unimportant. Anna spent her summers at Chawton and Jane tells Cassandra how on one occasion Anna had been with the Prowtings all the previous day. She had gone to learn how to make feather trimmings from their daughter Catherine-Ann and stayed to dinner. This proved convenient as the Digweeds had invited the Austens to meet Mrs and Miss Terry. Because Anna’s brief and unfulfilled engagement to Michael Terry in the winter of 1809-10 had caused general embarrassment Jane was relieved that Anna was out of the way.
Anna created considerable amusement for herself and her aunt by borrowing popular novels from the circulating library at Alton. These she would scan and mockingly summarize for the ears of her aunt, who sat patiently at her needlework, nearly always for the poor. Anna and Jane found these sessions hilarious and even Cassandra was entertained though she teased them for being foolish and implored them not to make her laugh so much. Jane and Anna had laughed until they cried over
Lady Maclairn, the Victim of Villainy
, an eight-volume novel by Rachel Hunter, in which the heroine and numerous other characters, male and female, were always in floods of tears.
Jane composed a satirical letter to Mrs Hunter who lived in Norwich, though of course it was never intended for the post. It ran:
Jane Austen’s tears have flowed over each sweet sketch in such a way as would have done Mrs Hunter’s heart good to see: if Mrs Hunter could understand all Miss Jane Austen’s interest in the subject she would certainly have the kindness to publish at least four more volumes about the Flint family, and especially would give many fresh particulars on that part of it which Mrs Hunter has hitherto handled too briefly viz., the history of Mary Flint’s marriage with Howard.
Miss Jane Austen cannot close this small epitome of the miniature abridgment of her thanks and admiration without expressing her sincere hope that Mrs Hunter is provided at Norwich with a more safe conveyance to London than Alton can now boast; as the Car of Falkenstein, the pride of that town, was overturned within the last ten days.
Although this pretentious name for Collyer’s daily coach sounds like something from a Gothic novel by Mrs Radcliffe, that is what it really was called.
A battle had been fought at Almeida in Portugal almost on the Spanish border and the
Hampshire Telegraph
had reported it. ‘How horrible it is to have so many people killed!’ lamented Jane; then pulling herself together with unsentimental realism she added, ‘And what a blessing that one cares for none of them.’ It was always a relief in wartime to find no names of relatives or friends on the casualty lists.
The garden was looking well and an apricot had been detected on one of the trees. Henry would bring Cassandra back from Godmersham to his house in Sloane Street where she would be staying about a week. Jane and Martha had unpacked some new Wedgwood ware and were about to buy currants to make wine.
In August 1811 Henry’s wife Eliza arrived at Chawton, and so did Charles after seven years away. He introduced his gentle young wife, with whom he seemed very happy, and two pretty little girls. Cassandra, writing to Phila - now Mrs George Whitaker, having recently married late in life - said, ‘There must always be something to wish for, and for Charles we have to wish for rather more money. So expensive as everything in England is now, even the necessaries of life, I am afraid they will find themselves very poor.’ Charles was soon appointed to command HMS
Namur
and to save money his wife and children lived on board with him while the ship was in port. This was cheaper than living in lodgings, though naval wives with children had to put up with that when their husbands were at sea. The
Namur
was the flagship of Admiral Sir Thomas Williams, whose first wife had been Charles’s cousin Jane Cooper.
Old King George III was expected to die, though he lived till 1820. People bought mourning black just in case. Anna and her friend Harriet walked with Jane into Alton to buy theirs and Mrs Austen had a black bombazine, a dull-surfaced twill fabric, handy.
Sense and Sensibility
was published in October 1811. It was advertised in the
Star
of 30 October and the
Morning Chronicle
of 31 October and priced at fifteen shillings. The book was published at the author’s expense. Cassandra wrote again to Fanny Knight to beg the Knight family not to mention that Jane had written it. The title page named her only as ‘a Lady’ and said, ‘London: Printed for the author by C. Bosworth, Bell-yard, Temple Bar, and published by T. Egerton, Whitehall, 1811’. In its later editions the title page read, ‘By the author of
Pride and Prejudice
.
There were no early reviews but the book’s reputation spread by word of mouth. Jane’s immediate family knew her value. James sent her an anonymous rhyming appreciation in a disguised hand. It went:
To Miss Jane Austen the reputed author of
Sense and Sensibility
, a novel lately published:
On such subjects no wonder that she should write well
In whom so delighted those qualities dwell;
Where ‘dear sensibility’, Sterne’s darling maid,
With sense so attempered is finely portrayed.
Fair Elinor’s self in that mind is expressed
And the feelings of Marianne live in that breast.
Oh then, gende lady! continue to write
And the sense of your readers t’amuse and delight.
This is a charming tribute from an intelligent and sympathetic reader who took a brotherly pride in his sister’s success. The stress falls on the first syllable of ‘Marianne’, suggesting it was pronounced more like ‘Marian’.
When reviews came they were favourable. The first appeared in the
Critical Review
for February 1812. The book earned:
particular commendation … it is well written; the characters are in genteel life, naturally drawn and judiciously supported. The incidents are probable, and highly pleasing, and interesting; the conclusion such as the reader must wish it should be, and the whole is just long enough to interest without fatiguing. It reflects honour on the writer, who displays much knowledge of character and very happily blends a great deal of good sense with the lighter matter of the piece.
Such just appreciation is what every first novelist dreams of. The
British Critic
said it was ‘a very pleasing and entertaining narrative’. The first edition sold out. Jane made a profit of £140. Had the book failed she could not have afforded to publish the rest. Although Jane had already started work on
Mansfield Park
she interrupted composition in order to revise and prune the manuscript of
First Impressions. Pride and Prejudice
as we now have it was altered to fit the calendars of 1811-12.
Edward arrived in Hampshire with his daughter Fanny and her cousin Fanny Cage. There were two Fanny Cages, mother and daughter. It was the daughter who was mocked by Jane Austen as being ‘all superlatives and rapture’. Edward’s daughter Fanny was romantically involved with a neighbouring gentleman, Mr John Pemberton Plumptre, and full of confidences about him.
In June 1812 Mrs Austen and Jane spent a couple of weeks with James at Steventon. Mary met them at Basingstoke with the carriage. Mrs Austen had decided to stay at home in future and said that she intended this, her last visit, to be to her eldest son. On 25 June, Jane and her mother went back to Chawton, taking Anna with them. Anna was prettier and quicker-witted than Fanny but Jane loved Fanny more. Anna stayed three months. Searching the circulating library at Alton for something enjoyable to read, she picked up a copy
of Sense and Sensibility
, but threw it aside with careless contempt saying, ‘Oh, that must be rubbish! 'I'm sure of it from the title.’ Jane and Cassandra, who were standing by, suppressed their mirth.
On 14 October old Mrs Knight died. It was at this time that Edward changed his name, though for convenience he and his children are generally referred to as Knight from the time of his adoption in 1783. Fanny hated changing her name from ‘Miss Austen’ to ‘Miss Knight’. Jane decided to learn to write the letter K more elegantly. Unfortunately Edward’s inheritance was disputed and he ended up paying the other claimants £30,000, most of which was swallowed up in legal costs.
In November Edward and Fanny visited with Fanny’s twelve-year-old sister Lizzie and their cousin Mary Deedes. Jane referred to the party as ‘Edward and his harem’. Jane was able to write to Martha who was away on a visit, ‘P
and P
is sold. Egerton gives £110 for it.’ She added ruefully that she would rather have had £150 but she was unsurprised that her publisher was unwilling to risk more. The sale would save Henry the trouble of touting it elsewhere. The money was due in a year’s time. Her publisher had spotted a bestseller.
Charles had a third daughter, another Fanny, born in December 1812. He and his wife, Fanny, left the other two with their grandmother and aunts at Chawton. The children were much improved but the maiden aunt thought method had been wanting in their upbringing. Little Cassy could be a very nice child if her parents would ‘only exert themselves a little’. Jane had never tried living on shipboard with three small children.
Meanwhile Mrs Austen was busy knitting gloves and Jane was reading
An Essay on the Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire
by Captain Sir Charles William Pasley of the Royal Engineers, which she found highly entertaining and delightfully written. She declared herself in love with the author, as much so as with Thomas Clarkson, author of
History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade
(1808), and Claudius Buchanan, author of
Christian Researches in Asia
(1811). Yet some people are convinced that Jane Austen’s interests were purely trivial.
A
Bestseller, 1813
P
ride and Prejudice
was the hit novel of 1813. It was advertised in the
Morning Chronicle
for 28 January at eighteen shillings the three volumes. Jane wrote to Cassandra, who was at Steventon, from Chawton on 29 January, ‘I want to tell you that I have got my own darling child from London.’ Like other authors Jane spoke of her books as her babies, the ones she never had. ‘On Wednesday I received one copy, sent down by Falknor, with three lines from Henry to say that he had given another to Charles and sent a third by the coach to Godmersham, The advertisement is in our paper today for the first time: eighteen shillings. He shall ask a guinea for my two next.’
Miss Benn dined with them on the very day of the book’s coming out. It was read aloud to this guinea-pig listener but its authorship was kept a secret. Jane told Cassandra that Miss Benn found the story amusing and seemed to admire Elizabeth. Jane told Cassandra, I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like
her
at least, I do not know.’ Mrs Austen was the reader and in Jane’s opinion perfectly understood the characters but read too quickly and lacked the dramatic talent to make them speak as they ought. Jane was better able to read ‘in character’. Although Miss Benn was not told why the book was of particular interest, she sensed the suppressed excitement and put two and two together. Next day Miss Benn called with Mrs Harry Digweed, née Jane Terry, who could be relied on to spread the news among the numerous Terry clan.
The book had been lopped and cropped, so Jane believed it was now shorter than
Sense and Sensibility
, She was exasperated to find a misprint on page 220, where two speeches had been made into one. She wrote:
On the whole however I am quite vain enough and well satisfied enough. The work is rather too light and bright and sparkling; it wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter - of sense if it could be had, if not of solemn specious nonsense - about something unconnected with the story; an essay on writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Bonaparte - or anything that would form a contrast and bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness and epigrammatism of the general style.
