After Story , published in 2021, is the third novel by Larissa Behrendt .
101-453: Jasmine, an ambitious Indigenous lawyer, invites her mother, Della, at the last minute to a literary tour of Britain. Although Jasmine has moved to the city, Della has remained in her small New South Wales town her whole life. The relationship between mother and daughter is currently strained, and audience learns that this tension originates from the kidnapping and murder of Jasmine's oldest sister, Della's daughter, years before. The structure of
202-464: A barrister . Lefroy and Austen would have been introduced at a ball or other neighbourhood social gathering, and it is clear from Austen's letters to Cassandra that they spent considerable time together: "I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together." Austen wrote in her first surviving letter to her sister Cassandra that Lefroy
303-405: A "slight watercolour sketch" made by Cassandra around 1810, Andrews produced a professional portrait that served as a model for a steel engraving . As Sutherland notes, "its difference from Cassandra's original is evident to the most cursory glance. Her crude pencil and watercolour likeness is sharp-faced, pursed-lipped, unsmiling, scornful even, and withdrawn; in its Victorian refashioning, the face
404-491: A 16th-century house in disrepair, underwent necessary renovations. Cassandra gave birth to three children while living at Deane: James in 1765, George in 1766, and Edward in 1767. Her custom was to keep an infant at home for several months and then place it with Elizabeth Littlewood, a woman living nearby to nurse and raise for twelve to eighteen months. In 1768, the family finally took up residence in Steventon. Henry
505-494: A Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters , a satiric outline of the "perfect novel" based on the librarian's many suggestions for a future Austen novel. Austen was greatly annoyed by Clarke's often pompous literary advice, and the Plan of a Novel parodying Clarke was intended as her revenge for all the unwanted letters she had received from the royal librarian. In mid-1815 Austen moved her work from Egerton to John Murray ,
606-734: A better-known publisher in London, who published Emma in December 1815 and a second edition of Mansfield Park in February 1816. Emma sold well, but the new edition of Mansfield Park did poorly, and this failure offset most of the income from Emma . These were the last of Austen's novels to be published during her lifetime. While Murray prepared Emma for publication, Austen began The Elliots , later published as Persuasion . She completed her first draft in July 1816. In addition, shortly after
707-472: A carpenter could make about £100 annually while the typical annual income of a gentry family was between £1,000 and £5,000. Mr. Austen also rented the 200-acre Cheesedown farm from his benefactor Thomas Knight which could make a profit of £300 (equivalent to £48,000 in 2023) a year. During this period of her life, Jane Austen attended church regularly, socialised with friends and neighbours, and read novels—often of her own composition—aloud to her family in
808-474: A fortune and large estate from his great-aunt Perrot, with the only condition that he change his name to Leigh-Perrot. George Austen and Cassandra Leigh were engaged, probably around 1763, when they exchanged miniatures . He received the living of the Steventon parish from Thomas Knight, the wealthy husband of his second cousin. They married on 26 April 1764 at St Swithin's Church in Bath , by license , in
909-416: A legend of "good quiet Aunt Jane", portraying her as a woman in a happy domestic situation, whose family was the mainstay of her life. Modern biographers include details excised from the letters and family biographies, but the biographer Jan Fergus writes that the challenge is to keep the view balanced, not to present her languishing in periods of deep unhappiness as "an embittered, disappointed woman trapped in
1010-509: A man very hard to like, let alone love". In 1814, Austen wrote a letter to her niece Fanny Knight, who had asked for advice about a serious relationship, telling her that "having written so much on one side of the question, I shall now turn around & entreat you not to commit yourself farther, & not to think of accepting him unless you really do like him. Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection". The English scholar Douglas Bush wrote that Austen had "had
1111-401: A new manuscript of Susan if needed to secure the immediate publication of the novel, and requesting the return of the original so she could find another publisher. Crosby replied that he had not agreed to publish the book by any particular time, or at all, and that Austen could repurchase the manuscript for the £10 he had paid her and find another publisher. She did not have the resources to buy
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#17327932940161212-479: A new novel, The Watsons , but there was nothing like the productivity of the years 1795–1799. Tomalin suggests this reflects a deep depression disabling her as a writer, but Honan disagrees, arguing Austen wrote or revised her manuscripts throughout her creative life, except for a few months after her father died. It is often claimed that Austen was unhappy in Bath, which caused her to lose interest in writing, but it
1313-508: A posthumous edition of Northanger Abbey and included extracts from two letters, against the judgement of other family members. Details of Austen's life continued to be omitted or embellished in her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen , published in 1869, and in William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh's biography Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters , published in 1913, all of which included additional letters. Austen's family and relatives built
1414-524: A professional writer. When she was around eighteen years old, Austen began to write longer, more sophisticated works. In August 1792, aged seventeen, Austen started Catharine or the Bower , which presaged her mature work, especially Northanger Abbey , but was left unfinished until picked up in Lady Susan , which Todd describes as less prefiguring than Catharine . A year later she began, but abandoned,
1515-591: A relapse, writing: "I am ashamed to say that the shock of my Uncle's Will brought on a relapse ... but a weak Body must excuse weak Nerves." Austen continued to work in spite of her illness. Dissatisfied with the ending of The Elliots , she rewrote the final two chapters, which she finished on 6 August 1816. In January 1817, Austen began The Brothers (titled Sanditon when published in 1925), completing twelve chapters before stopping work in mid-March 1817, probably due to illness. Todd describes Sanditon ' s heroine, Diana Parker, as an "energetic invalid". In
1616-481: A second edition, which contained additional letters, family papers, and biographical material. He also included fragments of unfinished and unpublished Jane Austen manuscripts, namely a chapter Austen deleted from Persuasion and extracts from Sanditon as well as Lady Susan and The Watsons . Used as a frontispiece for the Memoir was a portrait of Jane Austen drawn by James Andrews of Maidenhead. Based on
1717-695: A set). They gradually gained wide acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew's publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and her supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience. Her work has inspired a large number of critical essays and has been included in many literary anthologies. Her novels have also inspired many films, including 1940's Pride and Prejudice , 1995's Sense and Sensibility , and 2016's Love & Friendship . The scant biographical information about Austen comes from her few surviving letters and sketches her family members wrote about her. Only about 160 of
1818-462: A short play, later titled Sir Charles Grandison or the happy Man, a comedy in 6 acts , which she returned to and completed around 1800. This was a short parody of various school textbook abridgements of Austen's favourite contemporary novel, The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753), by Samuel Richardson . When Austen became an aunt for the first time aged eighteen, she sent new-born niece Fanny Catherine Austen Knight "five short pieces of ...
1919-477: A simple ceremony, two months after Cassandra's father died. Their income was modest, with George's small per annum living; Cassandra brought to the marriage the expectation of a small inheritance at the time of her mother's death. After the living at the nearby Deane rectory had been purchased for George by his wealthy uncle Francis Austen, the Austens took up temporary residence there, until Steventon rectory,
2020-494: A sort of part-time job, and was not seeking to become a "literary lioness" (i.e. a celebrity). Another reason noted is that the novel was still seen as a lesser form of literature at the time compared with poetry, and many female and male authors published novels anonymously, whereas works of poetry, by both female and male writers were almost always attributed to the author. During her time at Chawton, Austen published four generally well-received novels. Through her brother Henry,
2121-601: A summary, which she then translated into an embellished French that often radically altered Austen's plots and characters. The first of the Austen novels to be published that credited her as the author was in France, when Persuasion was published in 1821 as La Famille Elliot ou L'Ancienne Inclination . Austen learned that the Prince Regent admired her novels and kept a set at each of his residences. In November 1815,
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#17327932940162222-461: A thoroughly unpleasant family". Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on 16 December 1775. Her father wrote of her arrival in a letter that her mother "certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago". He added that the newborn infant was "a present plaything for Cassy and a future companion". The winter of 1775-1776 was particularly harsh and it was not until 5 April that she
2323-410: A version was published that is based on the 1871 edition, and has an introduction, notes and index by R W Chapman. The image of "dear aunt Jane" presented in the biography was not seriously challenged until 1940, when psychologist D. W. Harding argued that there was a "regulated hatred" in Austen's works. With the exception of Harding's 1965 edition, there has been "no serious editorial engagement with
2424-635: A very high ideal of the love that should unite a husband and wife ... All of her heroines ... know in proportion to their maturity, the meaning of ardent love". A possible autobiographical element in Sense and Sensibility occurs when Elinor Dashwood contemplates "the worse and most irremediable of all evils, a connection for life" with an unsuitable man. In 1804, while living in Bath, Austen started, but did not complete, her novel The Watsons . The story centres on an invalid and impoverished clergyman and his four unmarried daughters. Sutherland describes
2525-513: A year later. In early 1803, Henry Austen offered Susan to Benjamin Crosby, a London publisher, who paid £10 for the copyright. Crosby promised early publication and went so far as to advertise the book publicly as being "in the press", but did nothing more. The manuscript remained in Crosby's hands, unpublished, until Austen repurchased the copyright from him in 1816. In December 1800, George Austen unexpectedly announced his decision to retire from
2626-417: Is "nature-loving, religious, domestic, [and] middle class". The Godmersham or Kentish Austens viewed Jane Austen as more "inward and passionate...gentrified, improved willy-nilly by contact with her fine relations". Moreover, as Caroline wrote, "the generation who knew her is passing away". Much of the biography is based on the memories of those who had only known Jane Austen when they were children and she
2727-447: Is described as "a comfortable figure, shunning fame and professional status, centred in home, writing only in the intervals permitted from the important domestic duties of a devoted daughter, sister, and aunt". However, the manuscripts published alongside the biography suggest another portrait, one of a struggling author who endlessly revised and of a "restless and sardonic spirit". The book had an "immediate" and "incalculable" effect on
2828-459: Is generally unimpressed but untroubled by the pretensions of the group, and easily makes connections with various members, who are drawn to her unaffected and curious temperament. As Della and Jasmine learn about the personal lives of authors like Jane Austen , the Brontë sisters , Virginia Woolf and Thomas Hardy , they each reflect on how the impact of Brittany's murder unfolded - the blame that
2929-450: Is just as possible that Austen's social life in Bath prevented her from spending much time writing novels. The critic Robert Irvine argued that if Austen spent more time writing novels when she was in the countryside, it might just have been because she had more spare time as opposed to being more happy in the countryside as is often argued. Furthermore, Austen frequently both moved and travelled over southern England during this period, which
3030-471: Is manuscript evidence that Austen continued to work on these pieces as late as 1811 (when she was 36), and that her niece and nephew, Anna and James Edward Austen, made further additions as late as 1814. Between 1793 and 1795 (aged eighteen to twenty), Austen wrote Lady Susan , a short epistolary novel , usually described as her most ambitious and sophisticated early work. It is unlike any of Austen's other works. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin describes
3131-645: Is not clear whether the decision to print more copies than usual of Austen's novels was driven by the publishers or the author. Since all but one of Austen's books were originally published "on commission", the risks of overproduction were largely hers (or Cassandra's after her death) and publishers may have been more willing to produce larger editions than was normal practice when their own funds were at risk. Editions of popular works of non-fiction were often much larger. Austen made £140 (equivalent to £12,800 in 2023) from Sense and Sensibility , which provided her with some financial and psychological independence. After
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3232-426: Is softer, its expression more pliant, and the eyes only pensively averted." Andrews paid great attention to the details of Austen's dress and the chair. Cassy Esten, who owned the original sketch, wrote of the portrait: "I think the portrait is very much superior to any thing that could have been expected from the sketch it was taken from.—It is a very pleasing, sweet face,—tho’, I confess, to not thinking it much like
3333-407: Is thought to have written her fair copy of Lady Susan and added its "Conclusion". In 1806, the family moved to Southampton , where they shared a house with Frank Austen and his new wife. A large part of this time they spent visiting various branches of the family. On 5 April 1809, about three months before the family's move to Chawton , Austen wrote an angry letter to Richard Crosby, offering him
3434-407: The "extraordinary endowments of her mind", but does not explicitly mention her achievements as a writer. A Memoir of Jane Austen A Memoir of Jane Austen is a biography of the novelist Jane Austen (1775–1817) published in 1869 by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. A second edition was published in 1871 which included previously unpublished Jane Austen writings. A family project,
3535-406: The Austen family were elided by intention, such as any mention of Austen's brother George, whose undiagnosed developmental challenges led the family to send him away from home; the two brothers sent away to the navy at an early age; or wealthy Aunt Leigh-Perrot, arrested and tried on charges of larceny. The first Austen biography was Henry Thomas Austen 's 1818 "Biographical Notice". It appeared in
3636-561: The Juvenilia now known collectively as 'Scraps' .., purporting to be her 'Opinions and Admonitions on the conduct of Young Women ' ". For Jane-Anna-Elizabeth Austen (also born in 1793), her aunt wrote "two more 'Miscellanious [ sic ] Morsels', dedicating them to [Anna] on 2 June 1793, 'convinced that if you seriously attend to them, You will derive from them very important Instructions, with regard to your Conduct in Life. ' " There
3737-561: The Prince Regent's librarian James Stanier Clarke invited Austen to visit the Prince's London residence and hinted Austen should dedicate the forthcoming Emma to the Prince. Though Austen disapproved of the Prince Regent, she could scarcely refuse the request. Austen disapproved of the Prince Regent on the account of his womanising, gambling, drinking, spendthrift ways, and generally disreputable behaviour. She later wrote Plan of
3838-464: The age of fifteen, George Austen's sister Philadelphia was apprenticed to a milliner in Covent Garden . At the age of sixteen, George entered St John's College, Oxford , where he most likely met Cassandra Leigh (1739–1827). She came from the prominent Leigh family . Her father was rector at All Souls College, Oxford , where she grew up among the gentry. Her eldest brother James inherited
3939-557: The approximately 3,000 letters Austen wrote have survived and been published. Cassandra Austen destroyed the bulk of the letters she received from her sister, burning or otherwise destroying them. She wanted to ensure that the "younger nieces did not read any of Jane's sometimes acid or forthright comments on neighbours or family members". In the interest of protecting reputations from Jane's penchant for honesty and forthrightness, Cassandra omitted details of illnesses, unhappiness and anything she considered unsavoury. Important details about
4040-413: The author. If a novel did not recover its costs through sales, the author was responsible for them. The alternative to selling via commission was by selling the copyright, where an author received a one-time payment from the publisher for the manuscript, which occurred with Pride and Prejudice . Austen's experience with Susan (the manuscript that became Northanger Abbey ) where she sold the copyright to
4141-438: The biography was written by James Edward Austen-Leigh but owed much to the recollections of Jane Austen's many relatives. However, it was the decisions of her sister, Cassandra Austen , to destroy many of Jane's letters after her death that shaped the material available for the biography. Austen-Leigh described his "dear Aunt Jane" domestically, as someone who was uninterested in fame and who only wrote in her spare time. However,
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4242-416: The bounds of her immediate family environment". Her education came from reading, guided by her father and brothers James and Henry. Irene Collins said that Austen "used some of the same school books as the boys". Austen apparently had unfettered access both to her father's library and that of a family friend, Warren Hastings . Together these collections amounted to a large and varied library. Her father
4343-575: The completion of First Impressions , Austen returned to Elinor and Marianne and from November 1797 until mid-1798, revised it heavily; she eliminated the epistolary format in favour of third-person narration and produced something close to Sense and Sensibility . In 1797, Austen met her cousin (and future sister-in-law), Eliza de Feuillide , a French aristocrat whose first husband the Comte de Feuillide had been guillotined, causing her to flee to Britain, where she married Henry Austen. The description of
4444-531: The conclusion "I am unable to say whether her feelings were of such a nature as to affect her happiness". This kind of reticence was not isolated to the Austen family, however—it was typical of mid- Victorian era biography. James Edward Austen-Leigh began writing the Memoir on 30 March 1869 and finished it five months later in September. It was published on 16 December 1869 (though dated 1870) in an edition of about 1,000 copies. In 1871, Austen-Leigh published
4545-533: The copyright back at that time, but was able to purchase it in 1816. Around early 1809, Austen's brother Edward offered his mother and sisters a more settled life—the use of a large cottage in Chawton village which was part of the estate around Edward's nearby property Chawton House . Jane, Cassandra and their mother moved into Chawton cottage on 7 July 1809. Life was quieter in Chawton than it had been since
4646-507: The evenings. Socialising with the neighbours often meant dancing, either impromptu in someone's home after supper or at the balls held regularly at the assembly rooms in the town hall. Her brother Henry later said that "Jane was fond of dancing, and excelled in it". In 1783 Austen and her sister Cassandra were sent to Oxford to be educated by Ann Cawley who took them to Southampton later that year. That autumn both girls were sent home after catching typhus , of which Jane nearly died. She
4747-475: The execution of the Comte de Feuillide related by his widow left Austen with an intense horror of the French Revolution that lasted for the rest of her life. During the middle of 1798, after finishing revisions of Elinor and Marianne , Austen began writing a third novel with the working title Susan —later Northanger Abbey —a satire on the popular Gothic novel . Austen completed her work about
4848-536: The family to gather their papers and to begin recording their memories. Public interest in Jane Austen was also developing and the family became concerned that an outsider or another branch of the family would produce a biography. James Edward Austen-Leigh, as the son of the eldest branch, "in a spirit of censorship as well as communication", thus began the project. With the help and support of his sisters and Jane Austen's nieces, he collected materials. The biography
4949-416: The family's move to Bath in 1800. The Austens did not socialise with gentry and entertained only when family visited. Her niece Anna described the family's life in Chawton as "a very quiet life, according to our ideas, but they were great readers, and besides the housekeeping our aunts occupied themselves in working with the poor and in teaching some girl or boy to read or write." Like many women authors at
5050-456: The greater part, (as she told me), 2 or 3 years before her own death—She left, or gave some as legacies to the Nieces—but of those that I have seen, several had portions cut out". Thus, while writing the Memoir , Austen-Leigh did not have access to large numbers of Jane Austen's letters. Furthermore, the rest had been scattered as bequests; a complete collection of Jane Austen's extant letters
5151-575: The ideas of those with whom members of the Austen family might disagree politically or socially were considered and discussed. The family relied on the patronage of their kin and hosted visits from numerous family members. Mrs Austen spent the summer of 1770 in London with George's sister, Philadelphia, and her daughter Eliza , accompanied by his other sister, Mrs. Walter and her daughter Philly. Philadelphia and Eliza Hancock were, according to Le Faye, "the bright comets flashing into an otherwise placid solar system of clerical life in rural Hampshire , and
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#17327932940165252-658: The juvenilia (or childhood writings) that Austen compiled fair copies consisted of twenty-nine early works into three bound notebooks, now referred to as the Juvenilia . She called the three notebooks "Volume the First", "Volume the Second" and "Volume the Third", and they preserve 90,000 words she wrote during those years. The Juvenilia are often, according to scholar Richard Jenkyns, "boisterous" and "anarchic"; he compares them to
5353-578: The manuscripts appended to the second edition suggest that Jane Austen was intensely interested in revising her manuscripts and was perhaps less content than Austen-Leigh described her. The Memoir does not attempt to unreservedly tell the story of Jane Austen's life. Following the Victorian conventions of biography, it kept much private information from the public, but family members disagreed over just how much should be revealed; for example, regarding Austen's romantic relationships. The Memoir introduced
5454-462: The ministry, leave Steventon, and move the family to 4, Sydney Place in Bath , Somerset. While retirement and travel were good for the elder Austens, Jane Austen was shocked to be told she was moving 50 miles (80 km) away from the only home she had ever known. An indication of her state of mind is her lack of productivity as a writer during the time she lived in Bath. She was able to make some revisions to Susan , and she began and then abandoned
5555-435: The model for the title character may have been Eliza de Feuillide , who inspired Austen with stories of her glamorous life and various adventures. Eliza's French husband was guillotined in 1794; she married Jane's brother Henry Austen in 1797. When Austen was twenty, Tom Lefroy , a neighbour, visited Steventon from December 1795 to January 1796. He had just finished a university degree and was moving to London for training as
5656-579: The news of their foreign travels and fashionable London life, together with their sudden descents upon the Steventon household in between times, all helped to widen Jane's youthful horizon and influence her later life and works." Cassandra Austen's cousin Thomas Leigh visited a number of times in the 1770s and 1780s, inviting young Cassie to visit them in Bath in 1781. The first mention of Jane occurs in family documents upon her return, "... and almost home they were when they met Jane & Charles,
5757-512: The next four years, the family's living arrangements reflected their financial insecurity. They spent part of the time in rented quarters in Bath before leaving the city in June 1805 for a family visit to Steventon and Godmersham . They moved for the autumn months to the newly fashionable seaside resort of Worthing , on the Sussex coast , where they resided at Stanford Cottage. It was here that Austen
5858-473: The novel Austen mocked hypochondriacs , and although she describes the heroine as "bilious", five days after abandoning the novel she wrote of herself that she was turning "every wrong colour" and living "chiefly on the sofa". She put down her pen on 18 March 1817, making a note of it. Austen made light of her condition, describing it as "bile" and rheumatism . As her illness progressed, she experienced difficulty walking and lacked energy; by mid-April she
5959-551: The novel as "a study in the harsh economic realities of dependent women's lives". Honan suggests, and Tomalin agrees, that Austen chose to stop work on the novel after her father died on 21 January 1805 and her personal circumstances resembled those of her characters too closely for her comfort. Her father's relatively sudden death left Jane, Cassandra, and their mother in a precarious financial situation. Edward, James, Henry, and Francis Austen (known as Frank) pledged to make annual contributions to support their mother and sisters. For
6060-413: The novel covers each day of the on a tour of England's most revered literary sites shown from the perspective of Della, then Jasmine. The tour group are all literary enthusiasts, and are a mixture of participants from different ages, but mostly middle class. Jasmine's perceives that Della is out of place, and is worried about her history of issues with alcohol, both potentially embarrassing for Jasmine. Della
6161-549: The novel-reading public and the large costs associated with hand production (particularly the cost of handmade paper) meant that most novels were published in editions of 500 copies or fewer to reduce the risks to the publisher and the novelist. Even some of the most successful titles during this period were issued in editions of not more than 750 or 800 copies and later reprinted if demand continued. Austen's novels were published in larger editions, ranging from about 750 copies of Sense and Sensibility to about 2,000 copies of Emma . It
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#17327932940166262-591: The novella's heroine as a sexual predator who uses her intelligence and charm to manipulate, betray and abuse her lovers, friends and family. Tomalin writes: Told in letters, it is as neatly plotted as a play, and as cynical in tone as any of the most outrageous of the Restoration dramatists who may have provided some of her inspiration ... It stands alone in Austen's work as a study of an adult woman whose intelligence and force of character are greater than those of anyone she encounters. According to Janet Todd,
6363-405: The one hand, and between Henry and Jane on the other." From 1773 until 1796, George Austen supplemented his income by farming and by teaching three or four boys at a time, who boarded at his home. The Reverend Austen had an annual income of £200 (equivalent to £32,000 in 2023) from his two livings. This was a very modest income at the time; by comparison, a skilled worker like a blacksmith or
6464-456: The original;—but that , the public will not be able to detect." The Memoir is a "rag-bag, not the shaped life of the historio- or psycho-biographies of the late twentieth century, but an undesigned and unprioritized assortment" of detail, such as descriptions of clothing, a "eulogy of spinning", and a digression on the Welsh ancestry of some Austen relations. Nor does the biography aim to tell
6565-502: The price at 18 shillings (equivalent to £74 in 2023). He advertised the book widely and it was an immediate success, garnering three favourable reviews and selling well. Had Austen sold Pride and Prejudice on commission, she would have made a profit of £475, or twice her father's annual income. By October 1813, Egerton was able to begin selling a second edition. Mansfield Park was published by Egerton in May 1814. While Mansfield Park
6666-713: The prologues and epilogues and she probably joined in these activities, first as a spectator and later as a participant. Most of the plays were comedies, which suggests how Austen's satirical gifts were cultivated. At the age of 12, she tried her own hand at dramatic writing; she wrote three short plays during her teenage years. From at least the time she was aged eleven, Austen wrote poems and stories to amuse herself and her family. She exaggerated mundane details of daily life and parodied common plot devices in "stories [] full of anarchic fantasies of female power, licence, illicit behaviour, and general high spirits", according to Janet Todd . Containing work written between 1787 and 1793,
6767-417: The public to the works of Jane Austen, generating interest in novels which only the literary elite had read up until that point. It remained the primary biographical work on the author for over half a century. In the late 1860s, the Austen family decided to write a biography of Jane Austen. The death of Sir Francis Austen , her last surviving sibling, and the ageing of those who had any memory of her prompted
6868-480: The public's perception of Jane Austen. It generated interest in the works of an author which, for half a century, had been read almost entirely by the literary elite, and Austen's popularity increased dramatically. The publication of the Memoir also spurred the reissue of Austen's novels. The first popular editions were released in 1883—a sixpenny series by Routledge . This was followed by fancy illustrated editions, collectors' sets, and scholarly editions. In 1926,
6969-525: The publication of Emma , Henry Austen repurchased the copyright for Susan from Crosby. Austen was forced to postpone publishing either of these completed novels by family financial troubles. Henry Austen's bank failed in March 1816, depriving him of all of his assets, leaving him deeply in debt and costing Edward, James, and Frank Austen large sums. Henry and Frank could no longer afford the contributions they had made to support their mother and sisters. Austen
7070-402: The publisher Thomas Egerton agreed to publish Sense and Sensibility , which, like all of Austen's novels except Pride and Prejudice , was published "on commission", that is, at the author's financial risk. When publishing on commission, publishers would advance the costs of publication, repay themselves as books were sold and then charge a 10% commission for each book sold, paying the rest to
7171-608: The publisher Crosby & Sons for £10, who did not publish the book, forcing her to buy back the copyright in order to get her work published, left Austen leery of this method of publishing. The final alternative, of selling by subscription, where a group of people would agree to buy a book in advance, was not an option for Austen as only authors who were well known or had an influential aristocratic patron who would recommend an up-coming book to their friends, could sell by subscription. Sense and Sensibility appeared in October 1811, and
7272-557: The statements about Lefroy may have been ironic. However, it is clear that Austen was genuinely attracted to Lefroy and subsequently none of her other suitors ever quite measured up to him. The Lefroy family intervened and sent him away at the end of January. Marriage was impractical as both Lefroy and Austen must have known. Neither had any money, and he was dependent on a great-uncle in Ireland to finance his education and establish his legal career. If Tom Lefroy later visited Hampshire, he
7373-518: The success of Sense and Sensibility , all of Austen's subsequent books were billed as written "By the author of Sense and Sensibility " and Austen's name never appeared on her books during her lifetime. Egerton then published Pride and Prejudice , a revision of First Impressions , in January 1813. Austen sold the copyright to Pride and Prejudice to Egerton for £110 (equivalent to £9,100 in 2023). To maximise profits, he used cheap paper and set
7474-415: The time for lush romantic fantasies, it was remarkable that her novels with the emphasis on everyday English life had any sort of a market in France. King cautioned that Austen's chief translator in France, Madame Isabelle de Montolieu , had only the most rudimentary knowledge of English, and her translations were more of "imitations" than translations proper, as Montolieu depended upon assistants to provide
7575-556: The time they spend together, mother and daughter are able to work towards reconciling and understanding each other. On the novel's release The Guardian (Australia) said that After Story asked "smouldering questions are leavened by characters who are funny, complex, and real." The novel won the 2022 Voss Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards . Jane Austen Jane Austen ( / ˈ ɒ s t ɪ n , ˈ ɔː s t ɪ n / OST -in, AW -stin ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817)
7676-409: The time, Austen published her books anonymously. At the time, the ideal roles for a woman were as wife and mother, and writing for women was regarded at best as a secondary form of activity; a woman who wished to be a full-time writer was felt to be degrading her femininity, so books by women were usually published anonymously in order to maintain the conceit that the female writer was only publishing as
7777-542: The transition to 19th-century literary realism . Her use of social commentary , realism, wit , and irony have earned her acclaim amongst critics and scholars. The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were modest successes, but they brought her little fame in her lifetime. She wrote two other novels— Northanger Abbey and Persuasion , both published posthumously in 1817—and began another, eventually titled Sanditon , but it
7878-409: The two little ones of the family, who had to go as far as New Down to meet the chaise , & have the pleasure of riding home in it." Le Faye writes that "Mr Austen's predictions for his younger daughter were fully justified. Never were sisters more to each other than Cassandra and Jane; while in a particularly affectionate family, there seems to have been a special link between Cassandra and Edward on
7979-413: The unvarnished truth. For example, the family hid the existence of a second brother, the handicapped George Austen, and described Edward Austen as the second brother instead of the third. They also omitted the arrest and jailing of Mrs. Leigh Perrot, Jane Austen's aunt, for shoplifting in Bath . According to 19th-century biography standards, "neither piece of discretion is surprising". Jane Austen herself
8080-468: The work aloud to her family as she was working on it and it became an "established favourite". At this time, her father made the first attempt to publish one of her novels. In November 1797, George Austen wrote to Thomas Cadell , an established publisher in London, to ask if he would consider publishing First Impressions . Cadell returned Mr. Austen's letter, marking it "Declined by Return of Post". Austen may not have known of her father's efforts. Following
8181-692: The work of 18th-century novelist Laurence Sterne . Among these works is a satirical novel in letters titled Love and Freindship [ sic ], written when aged fourteen in 1790, in which she mocked popular novels of sensibility . The next year, she wrote The History of England , a manuscript of thirty-four pages accompanied by thirteen watercolour miniatures by her sister, Cassandra. Austen's History parodied popular historical writing, particularly Oliver Goldsmith 's History of England (1764). Honan speculates that not long after writing Love and Freindship , Austen decided to "write for profit, to make stories her central effort", that is, to become
8282-677: Was a "very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man". Five days later in another letter, Austen wrote that she expected an "offer" from her "friend" and that "I shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white coat", going on to write "I will confide myself in the future to Mr Tom Lefroy, for whom I don't give a sixpence" and refuse all others. The next day, Austen wrote: "The day will come on which I flirt my last with Tom Lefroy and when you receive this it will be all over. My tears flow as I write at this melancholy idea". Halperin cautioned that Austen often satirised popular sentimental romantic fiction in her letters, and some of
8383-449: Was also at home. Bigg-Wither proposed and Austen accepted. As described by Caroline Austen, Jane's niece, and Reginald Bigg-Wither, a descendant, Harris was not attractive—he was a large, plain-looking man who spoke little, stuttered when he did speak, was aggressive in conversation, and almost completely tactless. However, Austen had known him since both were young and the marriage offered many practical advantages to Austen and her family. He
8484-458: Was also tolerant of Austen's sometimes risqué experiments in writing, and provided both sisters with expensive paper and other materials for their writing and drawing. Private theatricals were an essential part of Austen's education. From her early childhood, the family and friends staged a series of plays in the rectory barn, including Richard Sheridan 's The Rivals (1775) and David Garrick 's Bon Ton . Austen's eldest brother James wrote
8585-486: Was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels , which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are implicit critiques of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of
8686-510: Was baptised at the local church and christened Jane. Her father, George Austen (1731–1805), served as the rector of the Anglican parishes of Steventon and Deane . The Reverend Austen came from an old and wealthy family of wool merchants. As each generation of eldest sons received inheritances, George's branch of the family fell into poverty. He and his two sisters were orphaned as children and had to be taken in by relatives. In 1745, at
8787-411: Was carefully kept away from the Austens, and Jane Austen never saw him again. In November 1798, Lefroy was still on Austen's mind as she wrote to her sister she had tea with one of his relatives, wanted desperately to ask about him, but could not bring herself to raise the subject. After finishing Lady Susan , Austen began her first full-length novel Elinor and Marianne . Her sister remembered that it
8888-456: Was cast and the estrangement of relationships that followed, as well as the blame. This is compounded when during their tour, the mother and daughter follow the news of another child going missing on Hampstead Heath. Through learning about the lives famous British storytellers, Della rediscovers the wisdom of her own culture and storytelling, with Jasmine growing a better understanding of the different ways stories can be passed on. Through this and
8989-542: Was confined to bed. In May, Cassandra and Henry brought her to Winchester for treatment, by which time she suffered agonising pain and welcomed death. Austen died in Winchester on 18 July 1817 at the age of 41. Henry, through his clerical connections, arranged for his sister to be buried in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral . The epitaph composed by her brother James praises Austen's personal qualities, expresses hope for her salvation, and mentions
9090-407: Was described as being written "By a Lady". As it was sold on commission, Egerton used expensive paper and set the price at 15 shillings (equivalent to £69 in 2023). Reviews were favourable and the novel became fashionable among young aristocratic opinion-makers; the edition sold out by mid-1813. Austen's novels were published in larger editions than was normal for this period. The small size of
9191-514: Was feeling unwell by early 1816, but ignored the warning signs. By the middle of that year, her decline was unmistakable, and she began a slow, irregular deterioration. The majority of biographers rely on Zachary Cope 's 1964 retrospective diagnosis and list her cause of death as Addison's disease , although her final illness has also been described as resulting from Hodgkin's lymphoma . When her uncle died and left his entire fortune to his wife, effectively disinheriting his relatives, she suffered
9292-503: Was from then home-educated, until she attended boarding school with her sister from early in 1785 at the Reading Abbey Girls' School , ruled by Mrs La Tournelle. The curriculum probably included French, spelling, needlework, dancing, music and drama. The sisters returned home before December 1786 because the school fees for the two girls were too high for the Austen family. After 1786 Austen "never again lived anywhere beyond
9393-701: Was hardly a conducive environment for writing a long novel. Austen sold the rights to publish Susan to a publisher Crosby & Company, who paid her £10 (equivalent to £1,020 in 2023). The Crosby & Company advertised Susan , but never published it. The years from 1801 to 1804 are something of a blank space for Austen scholars as Cassandra destroyed all of her letters from her sister in this period for unknown reasons. In December 1802, Austen received her only known proposal of marriage. She and her sister visited Alethea and Catherine Bigg, old friends who lived near Basingstoke . Their younger brother, Harris Bigg-Wither, had recently finished his education at Oxford and
9494-421: Was ignored by reviewers, it was very popular with readers. All copies were sold within six months, and Austen's earnings on this novel were larger than for any of her other novels. Without Austen's knowledge or approval, her novels were translated into French and published in cheaply produced, pirated editions in France. The literary critic Noel King commented in 1953 that, given the prevailing rage in France at
9595-512: Was largely the work of James Edward Austen-Leigh, his half-sister Jane Anna Elizabeth Austen Lefroy, his younger sister Caroline Mary Craven Austen, and their cousin Cassy Esten. As Austen scholar Kathryn Sutherland points out in her "Introduction" to the Oxford edition of the Memoir , however, Austen-Leigh's biography is specific to the Steventon or Hampshire Austens, for whom Jane Austen
9696-504: Was left unfinished upon her death. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan , and the unfinished novel The Watsons . Since her death Austen's novels have rarely been out of print. A significant transition in her reputation occurred in 1833, when they were republished in Richard Bentley 's Standard Novels series (illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering and sold as
9797-459: Was only gathered in 1932. There may have been disagreements between the descendants regarding how much information to keep private, particularly with regards to Jane Austen's romances. For example, the first edition of the Memoir states "I have no reason to think that she ever felt any attachment by which the happiness of her life was at all affected". This sentence was removed from the second edition and two romantic attachments are hinted at, with
9898-511: Was read to the family "before 1796" and was told through a series of letters. Without surviving original manuscripts, there is no way to know how much of the original draft survived in the novel published anonymously in 1811 as Sense and Sensibility . Austen began a second novel, First Impressions (later published as Pride and Prejudice ), in 1796. She completed the initial draft in August 1797, aged 21; as with all of her novels, Austen read
9999-464: Was the first child to be born there, in 1771. At about this time, Cassandra could no longer ignore the signs that little George was developmentally disabled . He had seizures and may have been deaf and mute. At this time she chose to send him to be fostered. In 1773, Cassandra was born, followed by Francis in 1774, and Jane in 1775. According to the biographer Park Honan the Austen home had an "open, amused, easy intellectual atmosphere", in which
10100-494: Was the heir to extensive family estates located in the area where the sisters had grown up. With these resources, Austen could provide her parents a comfortable old age, give Cassandra a permanent home and, perhaps, assist her brothers in their careers. By the next morning, Austen realised she had made a mistake and withdrew her acceptance. No contemporary letters or diaries describe how Austen felt about this proposal. Irvine described Bigg-Wither as somebody who "...seems to have been
10201-517: Was their older aunt; the rest is based on written records passed down through the family. As Sutherland explains, "the major ingredients of the Memoir , as well as its reverent colouring, are owed, in one way or another, to Cassandra Austen ." Cassandra was the executor of Jane's will and was responsible for the preservation and destruction of all remaining letters and manuscripts after Jane's death. According to Caroline Austen, one of Jane Austen's nieces, Cassandra "looked [the letters] over and burnt
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