{"id":32615,"date":"2024-01-15T00:02:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T23:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=256043"},"modified":"2024-01-15T04:11:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T03:11:41","slug":"becoming-jane-austen","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/becoming-jane-austen\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming Jane Austen"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first glance, Jane Austen\u2019s life seems to\u2028have been uneventful \u2013 but those initial\u2028appearances are somewhat deceptive <\/p>

By Jonathan Wright\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 15 January 2024 at 23:02 PM<\/p>

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On 16 December 1816, her 41st birthday, Jane Austen wrote a letter to her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh. Edward, as he was known, had recently gone to study at Oxford. Perhaps gently poking fun at Edward, a budding novelist, she wrote of his \u201cstrong, manly, spirited Sketches, full of variety and Glow\u201d.<\/p>\n

Discussing her own work, she asked modestly: \u201cHow could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much Labour?\u201dAusten was comparing herself to a miniraturist, painting tiny portraits.<\/p>\n

The letter, held at the British Library, is one of about 160 by Jane Austen to have survived. It is significant because it\u2019s rare and, more subtly, because it seems to confirm what we think we know about Austen. Here is the spinster chronicler of the domestic, a writer who famously saw no need to directly reference the Napoleonic Wars (1803\u2013 15) in her fiction.<\/p>\n

Yet this sketch, suggesting someone living a modest life, is at best only a partial picture. In her own lifetime, Austen was a successful novelist. Although she never married, she was part of a large family. In A Memoir of Jane Austen<\/em> (1869), Edward describes her as \u201cthe delight of all her nephews and nieces\u201d. She was also someone whose place in society \u2013 essentially that of the poor relation \u2013 meant that she observed the English landed gentry up close without the sense of security and status enjoyed by those who inherited or married money.<\/p>\n

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Cultural capital<\/h3>\n
Jane was born in 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, where her father, George (1731\u20131805), was the rector. Though the Reverend Austen\u2019s family had made money as wool merchants, George\u2019s branch weren\u2019t well off. In 1764, he married Cassandra Leigh (1739\u20131827), whose father was a fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. From 1768 until the turn of the century, the Austens lived in Steventon\u2019s rectory. Jane had six brothers and a beloved older sister, Cassandra (1773\u20131845). George supplemented his modest clerical income by farming and teaching.<\/p>\n
Though money was perennially tight, the Austens \u2013 a close and warm family \u2013 had cultural capital aplenty. Ideas were discussed freely in a home that often welcomed visitors from the wider world. Well educated by the standards of her time, Jane was able to access her father\u2019s library and that of a family friend, colonial administrator Warren Hastings (1732\u20131818). In addition, family and friends staged plays.<\/p>\n
From a young age, Jane wrote poems, plays and stories, often with the kind of satirical edge familiar from her novels. It was an apprenticeship for a professional writing career that began in earnest around 1795, though it was not until 1811 that one of her novels, Sense and Sensibility<\/em>, made it into print.<\/p>\n
Jane never married, though she was attracted to Tom Lefroy (1776\u20131889), a dashing and intelligent trainee barrister from Ireland. Marriage between the pair was impossible, because neither had any money. In 1802, Jane briefly accepted a proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, the charmless heir to extensive estates, but immediately regretted her decision and recanted her acceptance. In their different ways, both of these men appear to correspond to Austen archetypes.<\/p>\n
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