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Jane Austen's Letters
Jane Austen's letters afford a unique insight into the daily life of the intimate and gossipy, observant and informative--they read much like the novels themselves. They bring alive her family and friends, her surroundings and contemporary events, all with a freshness unparalleled in modern biographies. Most important, we recognize the unmistakable voice of the author of such novels as Pride and Prejudice and Emma . We see the shift in her writing from witty and amusing descriptions of the social life of town and country, to a thoughtful and constructive tone while writing about the business of literary composition.
R.W. Chapman's ground-breaking edition of the collected letters first appeared in 1932, and a second edition followed twenty years later. A third edition, edited Deirdre Le Faye in 1997 added new material, re-ordered the letters into their correct chronological sequence, and provided discreet and full annotation to each letter, including its provenance, and information on the watermarks, postmarks, and other physical details of the manuscripts. This new fourth edition incorporates the findings of recent scholarship to further enrich our understanding of Austen and give us the fullest and most revealing view yet of her life and family. In addition, Le Faye has written a new preface, has amended and updated the biographical and topographical indexes, has introduced a new subject index, and had added the contents of the notes to the general index.
Teachers, students, and fans of Jane Austen, at all levels, will find in these letters remarkable insight into one of the most popular novelists ever.
R.W. Chapman's ground-breaking edition of the collected letters first appeared in 1932, and a second edition followed twenty years later. A third edition, edited Deirdre Le Faye in 1997 added new material, re-ordered the letters into their correct chronological sequence, and provided discreet and full annotation to each letter, including its provenance, and information on the watermarks, postmarks, and other physical details of the manuscripts. This new fourth edition incorporates the findings of recent scholarship to further enrich our understanding of Austen and give us the fullest and most revealing view yet of her life and family. In addition, Le Faye has written a new preface, has amended and updated the biographical and topographical indexes, has introduced a new subject index, and had added the contents of the notes to the general index.
Teachers, students, and fans of Jane Austen, at all levels, will find in these letters remarkable insight into one of the most popular novelists ever.
694 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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850 people want to read
About the author
Deirdre Le Faye
31 books33 followersDeirdre Le Faye was an English writer and literary critic.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
May 5, 2021
A comprehensive collection of Jane Austen’s letters. Less fervent Austenites can get away with reading a selection of letters, but if you love her as much as I do and want to drink up anything and everything you can about her life and writing, this is the book you want. It not only has all of Jane’s surviving letters and letter fragments but also some additional letters written to or about Jane (including the one Cassandra wrote right after Jane died—excuse me while I go cry). This edition also includes thorough indexes that provide more context on people, places, events, etc., mentioned in the letters. You can avail yourself of them as much or as little as you like.
Admittedly, the content of most of the letters is fairly mundane. Far more ordinary than earth-shattering. Jane simply lived her life as all of us do and provided a snapshot of it in these letters. But ordinary is still interesting to me because it’s Jane! I learned plenty of wonderful tidbits that I did not know before and have a much better sense of what she was really like both as a person and as a writer. Fair warning, however—if you’re anything like me, this book still won’t be enough. You’ll desperately wish there was more. I doubt I’ll ever get over the fact that a large portion of Jane’s letters were destroyed and are lost to us forever.
Finally, rest assured that the same wit and humor that permeates her novels appear often in her letters. Here’s a small sampling:
"I do not want People to be very agreable as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."
"I am tolerably glad to hear that Edward's income is so good a one—as glad as I can at anybody's being rich besides You & me."
"I shall be able to send this to the post to day, which exalts me to the utmost pinnacle of human felicity, & makes me bask in the sunshine of Prosperity, or gives me any other sensation of pleasure in studied Language which You may prefer."
"I can recollect nothing more to say at present;—perhaps Breakfast may assist my ideas.
I was deceived—my breakfast supplied only two ideas, that the rolls were good, & the butter bad."
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 19 in 2021 Reading Challenge – A book or selection of letters)
Admittedly, the content of most of the letters is fairly mundane. Far more ordinary than earth-shattering. Jane simply lived her life as all of us do and provided a snapshot of it in these letters. But ordinary is still interesting to me because it’s Jane! I learned plenty of wonderful tidbits that I did not know before and have a much better sense of what she was really like both as a person and as a writer. Fair warning, however—if you’re anything like me, this book still won’t be enough. You’ll desperately wish there was more. I doubt I’ll ever get over the fact that a large portion of Jane’s letters were destroyed and are lost to us forever.
Finally, rest assured that the same wit and humor that permeates her novels appear often in her letters. Here’s a small sampling:
"I do not want People to be very agreable as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."
"I am tolerably glad to hear that Edward's income is so good a one—as glad as I can at anybody's being rich besides You & me."
"I shall be able to send this to the post to day, which exalts me to the utmost pinnacle of human felicity, & makes me bask in the sunshine of Prosperity, or gives me any other sensation of pleasure in studied Language which You may prefer."
"I can recollect nothing more to say at present;—perhaps Breakfast may assist my ideas.
I was deceived—my breakfast supplied only two ideas, that the rolls were good, & the butter bad."
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 19 in 2021 Reading Challenge – A book or selection of letters)
May 10, 2013
At first glance this letter collection may just seem like trivial tales of an uneventful everyday life - but under the trifling discussions of silk stockings, dinner menus and minor balls lies the heart of the most accomplished writer who ever lived.
These letters offer intimate insights in Jane Austen's way of thinking, reasoning and living. This book is the most direct impression one could ever gain of Jane Austen herself. And it is fascinating.
From the loving, gentle and comforting letters to her sister and relatives, to the formal business correspondence concerning her novels, her endearing childhood rhymes composed for the amusement of her nieces, her harsh and sarcastic portrayals of her surroundings and acquaintances, and the mournful accounts of death and loss; these letters show Jane Austen from as many angles as humanly possible.
Of course I delighted in the letters that involved literary criticism and details of her reading material along with her own reflections on the construction of her novels, but I also enjoyed forming a clear picture of her simple everyday life.
As I reached the last letters, and finally read Cassandra's grievous account of Jane's death, I felt like I had gotten to know my literary idol a bit better. Because, after all, this is not insignificant letters of an important author; it is touchingly real pieces of a blessed human being.
These letters offer intimate insights in Jane Austen's way of thinking, reasoning and living. This book is the most direct impression one could ever gain of Jane Austen herself. And it is fascinating.
From the loving, gentle and comforting letters to her sister and relatives, to the formal business correspondence concerning her novels, her endearing childhood rhymes composed for the amusement of her nieces, her harsh and sarcastic portrayals of her surroundings and acquaintances, and the mournful accounts of death and loss; these letters show Jane Austen from as many angles as humanly possible.
Of course I delighted in the letters that involved literary criticism and details of her reading material along with her own reflections on the construction of her novels, but I also enjoyed forming a clear picture of her simple everyday life.
As I reached the last letters, and finally read Cassandra's grievous account of Jane's death, I felt like I had gotten to know my literary idol a bit better. Because, after all, this is not insignificant letters of an important author; it is touchingly real pieces of a blessed human being.
June 27, 2017
This was a really great look into this time period - although I was painfully aware that this was a well-to-do white woman, especially when she seemed to spend a lot of her time discussing gossip, visits, and clothes. I liked the second half better, when she's talking more about writing and events, and there are more letters to her nieces and nephews. What an excellent large family! I especially admired Cassandra and Jane's close relationship.
December 21, 2022
I didn't read all the notes, indexes or biographical data available in this 600 plus page brick of a book. This is a scholarly work. I just read the letters, which take up over 300 page, and I referred to some of the footnotes to the letters. I am also very glad I had read Lucy Worsley's biography of Austen earlier this year. It really helped me to put the letters in context.
What was great about reading Austen's surviving letters is the recognition of her voice. Unsurprisingly, she was very witty in private as well. Having read her six major novels, I feel pretty confident that Lizzie Bennet is the closest any of her characters come to resembling to Austen. Also, these letters put that image of a shy, retiring Austen to rest. She was a busy woman with a full social life. Both she and Cassandra seem to spend half their time visiting someone else.
What was great about reading Austen's surviving letters is the recognition of her voice. Unsurprisingly, she was very witty in private as well. Having read her six major novels, I feel pretty confident that Lizzie Bennet is the closest any of her characters come to resembling to Austen. Also, these letters put that image of a shy, retiring Austen to rest. She was a busy woman with a full social life. Both she and Cassandra seem to spend half their time visiting someone else.
January 19, 2021
A great read for Austenites. I really enjoyed hearing about Jane's day to day life. The later letters to her nieces with advice on writing and love were great.
July 12, 2021
I listened to the audiobook version and the American reader was very good using a mild British accent. Most of these letters were written to her sister Cassandra, who apparently burned the vast majority of Jane's letters before her own death.
It's somewhat difficult to imagine writing to your own sister in such a formal, stilted manner. But I suppose this was common among the minority of literate adults of the time in England and America.
I'm not sure if these letters truly reflect Austen's rare talent on display in her novels. But it's an interesting glimpse into her life as a sister, daughter, aunt, and friend.
It's somewhat difficult to imagine writing to your own sister in such a formal, stilted manner. But I suppose this was common among the minority of literate adults of the time in England and America.
I'm not sure if these letters truly reflect Austen's rare talent on display in her novels. But it's an interesting glimpse into her life as a sister, daughter, aunt, and friend.
October 25, 2014
Originally published at Majoring in Literature.
There is something decidedly voyeuristic about reading the private correspondence of another person. Even if that person happens to have died almost two hundred years ago.
Collections of Jane Austen's letters have been around since the 1930s, when R. W. Chapman first began assembling them for historians and lovers of the famous author to peruse at will. Since then many have been rediscovered, and the collection has grown with every new edition.
So what might prompt someone to read the letters of Jane Austen? For many historians and scholars, it is a case of wanting to discover more about the life and mind of one of English literature's greatest heroes. They approach them, no doubt, hoping that her day-to-day correspondence will enlighten the material she presents us with in her novels.
For others, it may simply be a case of wanting to feel 'closer' to Austen. A peep into her everyday life would surely offer readers an example of what she might have thought, said, worn… the list goes on.
I must confess that I can’t be sure what my motivation was for wanting to read Austen's letters. I suppose it was partly a desire to find out more about Austen - her life, manners, company - but also to see whether reading the letters would in any way change my opinion of her work.
In the past, when letter-writing was not just something people did in olde-worlde movies, and the only way to convey news was through paper and ink, many famous writers and politicians elevated letter-writing to the status of a kind of art. Several people wrote letters with the intention of publishing them, knowing that these letters could contribute to the reputation of the writer.
Austen's letters do not strike me as the kind of things intended for mass perusal. In many ways they are like a riddle, containing a great deal of cryptic information about people and places that are long gone, and events which we could not possibly know about. Austen resists offering scholars much in the way of new insights; the writer of the letters maintains her right to privacy with a relentless zeal. In a range of letters dating from 1796 to 1817, the year she died, Austen writes primarily to her friends and family, exchanging news relevant mostly to the family, and to the neighbourhood that the family inhabits. Reading the letters is rather like following Austen from girlhood, through to adulthood (and, of course, authorship), and finally death. But it is by no means a complete and uninterrupted picture. The letters are full of gaps - literal and metaphoric. Some have been damaged, some lost, some destroyed. This is not so much a picture of Austen's life as snapshots, or jumbled voices from the past.
For someone like me, obsessed with promoting the image of Austen as Author, the most interesting letters are those in which she talks about her writing. There are letters to her publisher (including one where, writing to demand the return of her manuscript, she writes under the assumed name of Mrs Ashton Dennis, and signs off the letter with her initials - MAD), and several letters which show Austen staying in London, eagerly overseeing the final stages of Emma, and negotiating for a swift publication. She also records the reactions of friends and family to reading her novels, and later in life, offers her nieces long and detailed critiques of the novels they themselves have written.
But it is all to easy to forget, while reading, that unlike anything else Austen wrote, what is being spoken of is real people, places, and events. It is hard not to be moved by the later letters of the collection, which reveal Austen's worsening health, and then finally, the last letter in the collection written by her and - perhaps rather evocatively - cut off, and incomplete, due to the loss of the rest of the epistle.
The volume concludes with several letters written by Austen's sister, Cassandra. In a strange way, these letters are the most affecting of all. I think there are few who would not find Cassandra's letters moving, particularly when she reaches this famous passage:
Or Cassandra's description of the funerary procession, which she watched from her window (women were not permitted to attend funerals at this time):
Reading these final remarks brought back to me, with incredible clarity, the fact that I was reading the words of real people - not the words of characters in books, but the sensations of human beings who had cared deeply for each other. I put the book down with a little disgust, and wondered what I had actually gained by intruding, for a few days, on the private lives of these people. I had certainly not been invited, and I wondered if I had gained as much as I had imagined. Though the letters themselves were incredibly interesting - revealing the voice in which Jane Austen addressed the people she knew best - I couldn't help wondering if perhaps I had intruded on things that were just a little too private, even after two hundred years.
There is something decidedly voyeuristic about reading the private correspondence of another person. Even if that person happens to have died almost two hundred years ago.
Collections of Jane Austen's letters have been around since the 1930s, when R. W. Chapman first began assembling them for historians and lovers of the famous author to peruse at will. Since then many have been rediscovered, and the collection has grown with every new edition.
So what might prompt someone to read the letters of Jane Austen? For many historians and scholars, it is a case of wanting to discover more about the life and mind of one of English literature's greatest heroes. They approach them, no doubt, hoping that her day-to-day correspondence will enlighten the material she presents us with in her novels.
For others, it may simply be a case of wanting to feel 'closer' to Austen. A peep into her everyday life would surely offer readers an example of what she might have thought, said, worn… the list goes on.
I must confess that I can’t be sure what my motivation was for wanting to read Austen's letters. I suppose it was partly a desire to find out more about Austen - her life, manners, company - but also to see whether reading the letters would in any way change my opinion of her work.
In the past, when letter-writing was not just something people did in olde-worlde movies, and the only way to convey news was through paper and ink, many famous writers and politicians elevated letter-writing to the status of a kind of art. Several people wrote letters with the intention of publishing them, knowing that these letters could contribute to the reputation of the writer.
Austen's letters do not strike me as the kind of things intended for mass perusal. In many ways they are like a riddle, containing a great deal of cryptic information about people and places that are long gone, and events which we could not possibly know about. Austen resists offering scholars much in the way of new insights; the writer of the letters maintains her right to privacy with a relentless zeal. In a range of letters dating from 1796 to 1817, the year she died, Austen writes primarily to her friends and family, exchanging news relevant mostly to the family, and to the neighbourhood that the family inhabits. Reading the letters is rather like following Austen from girlhood, through to adulthood (and, of course, authorship), and finally death. But it is by no means a complete and uninterrupted picture. The letters are full of gaps - literal and metaphoric. Some have been damaged, some lost, some destroyed. This is not so much a picture of Austen's life as snapshots, or jumbled voices from the past.
For someone like me, obsessed with promoting the image of Austen as Author, the most interesting letters are those in which she talks about her writing. There are letters to her publisher (including one where, writing to demand the return of her manuscript, she writes under the assumed name of Mrs Ashton Dennis, and signs off the letter with her initials - MAD), and several letters which show Austen staying in London, eagerly overseeing the final stages of Emma, and negotiating for a swift publication. She also records the reactions of friends and family to reading her novels, and later in life, offers her nieces long and detailed critiques of the novels they themselves have written.
But it is all to easy to forget, while reading, that unlike anything else Austen wrote, what is being spoken of is real people, places, and events. It is hard not to be moved by the later letters of the collection, which reveal Austen's worsening health, and then finally, the last letter in the collection written by her and - perhaps rather evocatively - cut off, and incomplete, due to the loss of the rest of the epistle.
The volume concludes with several letters written by Austen's sister, Cassandra. In a strange way, these letters are the most affecting of all. I think there are few who would not find Cassandra's letters moving, particularly when she reaches this famous passage:
I have lost a treasure, such a Sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed, - She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow, I had not a thought concealed from her, & it is as if I had lost a part of myself.
(Letter from Cassandra Austen to Fanny Knight, Sunday 20th July 1817)
Or Cassandra's description of the funerary procession, which she watched from her window (women were not permitted to attend funerals at this time):
… I was determined I would see the last … I watched the little mournful procession the length of the Street & when it turned from my sight & I had lost her for ever-
(Letter from Cassandra Austen to Fanny Knight, Tuesday 29th July 1817)
Reading these final remarks brought back to me, with incredible clarity, the fact that I was reading the words of real people - not the words of characters in books, but the sensations of human beings who had cared deeply for each other. I put the book down with a little disgust, and wondered what I had actually gained by intruding, for a few days, on the private lives of these people. I had certainly not been invited, and I wondered if I had gained as much as I had imagined. Though the letters themselves were incredibly interesting - revealing the voice in which Jane Austen addressed the people she knew best - I couldn't help wondering if perhaps I had intruded on things that were just a little too private, even after two hundred years.
August 1, 2024
Review on Spanish.
Y con este libro cierro el ciclo de Jane Austen por este año. Este libro es una recopilación de todas las cartas archivadas hasta la fecha que escribió Jane Austen en vida y algunas respuestas dirigidas a la autora de Orgullo y Prejuicio que conciernen aspectos importantes de su vida, como las publicaciones de sus libros.
Las cartas están divididas en 6 partes que separan las etapas de su corta vida, ya que la autora solo vivió hasta los 41 años y vio publicadas en vida cuatro de sus obras. Lo que más me gustó de esta división es que puedes ver la evolución de la escritura de la autora así como los momentos de su vida que la marcaron desde su más tierna juventud hasta su adultez, que terminó de una manera tan abrupta después de una enfermedad inesperada.
En la etapa de la juventud podemos notar un mejor humor, más alegre y despreocupado, lleno de optimismo y sueños para el futuro, así como una gran actividad social y comentarios sobre las personas que componían su contorno durante sus viajes. En gran contraste, y tras la muerte de su padre, comienza su etapa madura, a la cual se adecúa poco a poco y que deja de lado cualquier pretensión de romance tras el rechazo de su último pretendiente, en el momento en el que decide que no se casará y que prefería vivir una vida independiente al lado de su hermana. No diría que es una vida trágica, ya que su muerte prematura para nuestra época, era una muerte solo temprana para su época y que no era tan extraña como en nuestros días. Las pruebas a las que se vio sometida en vida formaron su carácter y su independencia, por lo que considero que ella no renegó de su primer amor fallido ni de la muerte de sus padre, sino que más bien se reconcilió con estas pérdidas y aprendió a valerse por sí misma y usar su talento para la escritura en su beneficio y el de su hermana. Fue una mujer admirable en todo aspecto y este libro es un excelente cierre para sus excelentes obras.
Y con este libro cierro el ciclo de Jane Austen por este año. Este libro es una recopilación de todas las cartas archivadas hasta la fecha que escribió Jane Austen en vida y algunas respuestas dirigidas a la autora de Orgullo y Prejuicio que conciernen aspectos importantes de su vida, como las publicaciones de sus libros.
Las cartas están divididas en 6 partes que separan las etapas de su corta vida, ya que la autora solo vivió hasta los 41 años y vio publicadas en vida cuatro de sus obras. Lo que más me gustó de esta división es que puedes ver la evolución de la escritura de la autora así como los momentos de su vida que la marcaron desde su más tierna juventud hasta su adultez, que terminó de una manera tan abrupta después de una enfermedad inesperada.
En la etapa de la juventud podemos notar un mejor humor, más alegre y despreocupado, lleno de optimismo y sueños para el futuro, así como una gran actividad social y comentarios sobre las personas que componían su contorno durante sus viajes. En gran contraste, y tras la muerte de su padre, comienza su etapa madura, a la cual se adecúa poco a poco y que deja de lado cualquier pretensión de romance tras el rechazo de su último pretendiente, en el momento en el que decide que no se casará y que prefería vivir una vida independiente al lado de su hermana. No diría que es una vida trágica, ya que su muerte prematura para nuestra época, era una muerte solo temprana para su época y que no era tan extraña como en nuestros días. Las pruebas a las que se vio sometida en vida formaron su carácter y su independencia, por lo que considero que ella no renegó de su primer amor fallido ni de la muerte de sus padre, sino que más bien se reconcilió con estas pérdidas y aprendió a valerse por sí misma y usar su talento para la escritura en su beneficio y el de su hermana. Fue una mujer admirable en todo aspecto y este libro es un excelente cierre para sus excelentes obras.
July 14, 2014
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Las cartas están escritas en un estilo llano y sencillo sin cesar esa vena irónica y llena de humor de principio a fin con amplios detalles de su vida cotidiana, sus gustos, sus preferencias literarias, sus opiniones sobre el carácter de la gente que ya conocía y las que iba conociendo por primera vez. Carta a carta nos adentramos en aquellos momentos que compartió con sus seres queridos y amigos, me entristeció todas aquellas misivas que se destruyeron o extraviaron, de las que quedaron destaca el inmenso amor y devoción que sentía por los suyos. Encontraremos constantes revelaciones sobre el carácter de Jane, esa constante picardía y mordacidad al hacer una crítica de alguien por su poca inteligencia, es inevitable que te saque una sonrisa.
Esta obra está basada en la última edición de Jane Austen's Letters de Deirdre le Faye, está sumamente cuidada en su traducción, respetando la esencia del estilo de Jane. Con un completo apéndice y gran cantidad de notas a pie, muy útiles y necesarias para ampliarnos información de lugares, nombres, hechos... Asimismo cuenta con una relación de la bibliografía consultada, una cronología, un índice detallado tipográfico, de nombres, de obras citadas y una galería fotográfica.
La obra está dividida en seis partes. Cada parte coincide con algún cambio importante en la vida de Jane. Hay una introducción aclaratoria de cada parte, haciéndonos un resumen y acercamiento de lo que encontraremos a través de las cartas reunidas.
Si tengo que escoger una parte preferida, están las dos últimas, por acercarnos a sus primeras obras publicadas y las primeras impresiones que recogía de ellas. La última parte es muy conmovedora, ser testigos de cómo su vida se apagaba, fue triste, pero fue aleccionador ver cómo Jane se aferraba a la vida y su fuerte creencia en Dios la sobrepuso a su agonía.
A través de cada misiva nos acerca a vivencias como su experiencia del primer amor; su disfrute por los bailes; el rechazo a una petición de matrimonio; su primer rechazo de publicación, a la que sería después Orgullo y prejuicio; la mudanza a Bath y lo terrible que resultó ese cambio para ella; la muerte de su padre; cada matrimonio de sus hermanos menores, así como los nacimientos de algunos sobrinos; la constante contención económica con la que tenían que vivir; la ilusión y alegría cuando se mudaron a Chawton; los años de calma y creatividad que fueron para ella ese lugar; la publicación de Sentido y sensibilidad, Orgullo y prejuicio y Mansfield Park; los sentimientos que expresaba ante los comentarios de sus obras; el cariño y amor con que hablaba de sus personajes...
Esta obra es para leerla poco a poco, saboreando cada carta, revisando los pies de página, los apéndices para ir familiarizándose con los lugares, personajes y todo lo que se va mencionando en sus misivas, poco a poco iremos sintiendo cómo esta entrañable autora se nos interioriza y sentimos que estamos un poquito más cerca de conocerla mejor. Me quedo con la Jane, creyente, devota, crítica con aquello que no cumplía con sus estándares, sencilla, curiosa con lo que la rodeaba, amante de la vida y de su privacidad, de un espíritu inquebrantable, incluso cuando sentía que su vida se iba apagando...
No puedo dejar de resaltar la magnífica edición que ha hecho dÉpoca, en todo lo que ha implicado acercarnos esta obra a nuestros hogares. Una traducción, maquetación, edición, diseño gráfico y acabado de primerísima calidad y el cuidado al detalle de cada una de sus más de 750 páginas. Desde luego esta obra también ha abierto un abanico de libros que han sido del gusto y preferencia de Jane Austen que me encantaría leer.
Solo nos queda estas 161 cartas llenas de ella, de su puño y letra, adoro aquellas especialmente donde Jane Austen saca toda su chispa e ingenio, era una mujer llena de matices, con un encanto natural, vital y con una mezcla de sencillez y humildad.
Termino esta reseña con unas palabras de Cassandra: "He perdido un tesoro, una hermana como ella, una amiga que jamás podrá ser igualada. Era la luz de mi vida, volvía preciosa hasta la más insignificante alegría, aliviaba cualquier pena..."
June 8, 2018
As someone who has long been interested in the writings of Jane Austen [1], I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at her letters, and this book was certainly a pleasant and enjoyable read on that count and probably a worthwhile work for anyone who wants to be an Austen scholar as well and engage Jane Austen in terms of the context of her personal writing and not only her novels. Admittedly, these letters are only a fragment of the letters that she wrote and they skip over the more serious parts of Jane Austen's life. This book is a short one at 100 pages and includes 2/3 of the letters that were preserved by Jane's sister Cassandra after her death, and while we would wish that we had more letters by Jane Austen to read and comment upon and think about, this collection is definitely a worthwhile one that is enjoyable read and those who like the sparkling wit of Jane Austen's novels will find a great deal of biting wit to enjoy here, some of which is still savage even now, reading the letters more than 200 years later.
The letters included in this book are written in a small font, are organized in chronological fashion, and include quite a few notes from one of Jane Austen's great-nephews, who edited the collection when Austen became a popular writer in the mid-Victorian era after having lived her life in genteel poverty and general obscurity. Although these letters are not the full spectrum of Austen's personal writing, they do provide the reader with a thoughtful and sparkling selection of delightfully witty conversation. We see Jane Austen talking about parties and dresses and making catty comments about the men and women of her social circle, we see her be positively giddy as well as gentle and encouraging, and we see her love of wit and irony when dealing with her family. Of great interest is how we see Jane Austen as a friendly cheerleader to her relatives in encouraging their writings as well as giving them good advice on romance and relationships. One wonders if Jane Austen would have appreciated her personal and private mail being of such widespread interest centuries after she lived, but she might have been gratified that her thoughts and expressions were viewed as worth studying, since she evidently and properly thought well of her own writing as well as the people who would appreciate it most.
In reading this book, one not only gets a sense of who Jane Austen was and the society in which she lived as a fairly ordinary and even somewhat provincial person, but one also gets the feeling that she would have been a striking person in our contemporary age of social media. Given her ability to make zinging comments, she would have been absolutely on point as a fiery participant in twitter beefs, and her blog posts on why Walter Scott should stick to poetry and not deny novelists a chance at making a living would have gone viral. Although this book consists of personal mail that is two centuries old, it feels fresh because Jane Austen has the sort of wit and effervescent personality that she seems like someone we could know and like, someone who would have been a witty and enjoyable conversation partner who would have absolutely roasted those she had to suffer in being around in private and in writing after the fact. Given the small number of writings that one has from Jane Austen, all of them, like this one, certainly deserve a great deal of appreciation.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2013...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
The letters included in this book are written in a small font, are organized in chronological fashion, and include quite a few notes from one of Jane Austen's great-nephews, who edited the collection when Austen became a popular writer in the mid-Victorian era after having lived her life in genteel poverty and general obscurity. Although these letters are not the full spectrum of Austen's personal writing, they do provide the reader with a thoughtful and sparkling selection of delightfully witty conversation. We see Jane Austen talking about parties and dresses and making catty comments about the men and women of her social circle, we see her be positively giddy as well as gentle and encouraging, and we see her love of wit and irony when dealing with her family. Of great interest is how we see Jane Austen as a friendly cheerleader to her relatives in encouraging their writings as well as giving them good advice on romance and relationships. One wonders if Jane Austen would have appreciated her personal and private mail being of such widespread interest centuries after she lived, but she might have been gratified that her thoughts and expressions were viewed as worth studying, since she evidently and properly thought well of her own writing as well as the people who would appreciate it most.
In reading this book, one not only gets a sense of who Jane Austen was and the society in which she lived as a fairly ordinary and even somewhat provincial person, but one also gets the feeling that she would have been a striking person in our contemporary age of social media. Given her ability to make zinging comments, she would have been absolutely on point as a fiery participant in twitter beefs, and her blog posts on why Walter Scott should stick to poetry and not deny novelists a chance at making a living would have gone viral. Although this book consists of personal mail that is two centuries old, it feels fresh because Jane Austen has the sort of wit and effervescent personality that she seems like someone we could know and like, someone who would have been a witty and enjoyable conversation partner who would have absolutely roasted those she had to suffer in being around in private and in writing after the fact. Given the small number of writings that one has from Jane Austen, all of them, like this one, certainly deserve a great deal of appreciation.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2013...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
August 9, 2012
Intended more for scholarly readers than a casual audience, this is exactly what is says, a collection of every surviving scrap of letter Jane Austen wrote to anyone (mainly family) during her lifetime. Everytime someone writes a preface to her books, or creates a new biopic they look here for what she was really like. I did learn that the letters that were destroyed and censored by her surviving sister usually had to do with areas where she had described physical symptoms or made mildly disparaging remarks about family members, and not big juicy secret romance stuff as I had imagined. Has a series of great other features- a notes section detailing how each note was obtained, exactly what it looked like, when it was published, also a biographical index detailing who all the people are, where all the places are and an exhaustive index.
January 6, 2021
It was a bit of a journey encountering Austen's letters. She came across as a superficial, judgemental snob, especially in the way she judge those impoverished she visited, and the shape and looks of her peers. But with age this sharp trait softened and instead it becomes apparent that this keen observation comes from her writing her characters, it seems she treats people and characters the same. This though is not so surprising because often people imitate characters, or at least it seems to those that write and are most intimate with those characters, to see it in the real world makes the real person the doppelganger.
Although she certainly coveted the christian values pushed upon women of chastity and silence she was not entirely pious, except maybe in that frustrating character Fanny Price of Mansfield Park.
Although she certainly coveted the christian values pushed upon women of chastity and silence she was not entirely pious, except maybe in that frustrating character Fanny Price of Mansfield Park.
February 13, 2015
Una excelente recopilación de las cartas de la conocida escritora. Ha sido muy interesante poder conocer a Jane Austen como escritora, saber cómo era su día a día, como se relacionaba con los demás, como reaccionaba ante la publicación de sus obras... El final de su vida es muy triste y su hermana Cassandra lo relata muy bien en una carta a su sobrina Fanny. Normalmente no dejo aquí enlaces a las reseñas de mi blog, pero puesto que esta vez he publicado antes la reseña que mi opinión aquí, lo dejaré para quien quiera conocer más a fondo mi opinión: http://excentriks.blogspot.com.es/201....
May 2, 2014
This is an amazingly well researched book of JA's letters, notes on pretty much everything you can think of (watermarks, postmarks, corrections she made, historical information), multiple indexes.
I did struggle with this book, due to its size and flipping back and forth - I read the letter first, then the notes for that letter.
I would recommend this (hardcover) book to anyone who loves JA, with scholarly ambitions or just for pleasure.
I did struggle with this book, due to its size and flipping back and forth - I read the letter first, then the notes for that letter.
I would recommend this (hardcover) book to anyone who loves JA, with scholarly ambitions or just for pleasure.
July 17, 2023
I liked the letters that Jane Austen wrote, but I listened to it on audiobook and had a very hard time keeping up. All the names, dates and places confused me - that is why this book did not receive 5 stars from me. I thought it became more interesting in the end: as she starts to mention her novels once in a while and when she gives pieces of writing advice. Those letters were an utter joy.
December 28, 2019
Jane is who I want to be when I grow up.
August 22, 2020
At times i was a bit confused as to who was writing to who but overall a nice and quick read
November 20, 2021
I found Austen's letters quite interesting, but this is a terrible edition--no footnotes or editorial apparatus, and so poorly bound that by the time I finished pages were falling out.
June 11, 2022
If you need just a hit of J.A., these fictional letters hit the spot!
August 26, 2021
Reading these letters over two centuries after they were written, it's entering another world, and unless one has read a biography of Jane Austen, a world doubly unfamiliar to a reader.
Reading Jane Austen is nothing as much as looking into a mirror held to English life of her times, mainly life of home, involving men and women, characters and values - and most of it, with sense valued high, transcends time and place, so isn't strange or foreign to readers even couple of centuries later. Reading letters written by the author, personal and mostly to family members, is not different in this sense, except they are naturally more intimate and so more of a close up mirror, viewed by the reader invisible to the characters who were real, long since gone.
Slowly one begins to see her through them, a woman quite involved in her family and everyday life in small details. She mentions her writing but rarely, and speaks of details of family and clan, cousins and nephews and nieces; of servants and food, prices and salaries, livings and commissions and promotions, visits and visitors and travels.
And more than anything else, of dresses, balls, dances. One begins to see why, after reading so much of her work, and liking most, Elizabeth Bennett remains the central figure - because she's as close to the author herself as can get, a mirror image as Jane Austen saw herself. She reads, but isn't bookish like Mary Bennet. She's interested in clothes and balls and dancing, but isn't silly like or crazy like the two youngest Bennet girls. And she's decent, but not Jane Bennet. She's sensible, like her writing.
............
It isn't until close to halfway that one clearly sees a reference to her own writing, in the thirty fifth letter - there is a reference before, or two, but very fleeting, and this one is very brief, too.
The letter mentioning publication of her most well known, most popular, most quintessential work, mentions not the title, but her best known character by name, and this letter, fortieth, does not disappoint - it's short, but is all about the book; what's more, she states flat out -
" ... Elizabeth. 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. "!
And the next one continues about Pride and Prejudice, but is startling-
"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 Buonaparte, or something that would form a contrast ... "
Heaven forbid!
............
Somewhere between the fiftieth and the sixtieth letter, after she's talked about her family's reception of Mansfield Park, there is another surprise- Jane Austen is writing to her niece Anna about the latter working on her own novel, and most of us not professionally acquainted with history of English literature are likely to be surprised that the Austen family as such isn't counted anywhere near the Bronte family as more than one author being involved therein; didn't Anna get to publish? Are the manuscripts gone?
Letter LXII, to her niece Fanny, presumably one we've been reading about in most of her letters to Cassandra and now grown up, is so very like her writing in her most popular works, filled with sensible advice about love and realities, it's a positive delight reading it. This continues in letter LXVI.
............
It's startling reading her next letter to - presumably her niece - Anna, where she goes
"The chief news from this country is ... "
and one naturally infers that its her newly married niece Anna who is, presumably with her husband, at the country of his posting, perhaps in India, or somewhere as distant, this being the era of rising power of the British empire.
But the very next paragraph brings
"I think I understand the country about Hendon from your description. ",
explaining the mistake one -naturally! - made in inferring so - she's only speaking of country as in town vs countryside!
Letter sixty-six is a tad surprising, in that it criticises a nuece Annato another niece Fanny, about trifles that were better spoken to with Anna, privately and directly. The author's opinions and attitude about things aren't unfamiliar, but it does seem bordering incorrect that she criticises one niece to another, in a letter, rather than privately talk the matter over with the niece concerned.
It's amusing, when further she says
"Thank you, but it is not settled yet whether I do hazard a second edition. We are to see Egerton today, when it will probably be determined. People are more ready to borrow and praise than to buy, which I cannot wonder at; but though I like praise as well as anybody, I like what Edward calls "Pewter" too.",
having just criticised one niece to another for spending on a pianoforte and a pelisse, which she obviously considers extravagance - or were books so cheap in England as to be a negligible expense in her day, for anyone capable of reading?
That's to say, if there were no concept in her time of public libraries. Which would amount to the reason why rich had libraries at home, whether anyone read anything at all ever, or little, while poor being unread, unwashed, subcultures was presumed natural order of things in West generally.
But whether there were libraries or not, there was a middle class struggling to stay afloat, to manage poor finances - as for example on a curate's living, or even a vicar with a sizable family - while struggling to stay decent, reasonably decently dressed and so forth, in the difficult pre industrial era - and Austen is very familiar with it all, having described it so well in Sense and Sensibility, apart from her minute discussion of muslin and prices in her letters. Surely she was familiar with books or borrowers being not necessarily damaged by borrowing, unlike clothes or furniture?
............
The very next letter, LXVII, however, is accompanied with a postscript from Lord Brabourne, a nephew of the author, informing the reader about the ill health of her brother and her being feeble perhaps as a consequence of the worry, and the subsequent plight of the family when, after his recovery, his bank failed, affecting the circumstances of them all. It affects one as one reads it, decades over two centuries later, such is the identification of a reader with the author and her near and dear, as an effect of reading this compilation of her letters.
LXXIII has matter that makes one wonder, was Northanger Abbey inspired from an episode in life of author's niece, Fanny Knight? In the book the couple was united, by him leaving his father; here, Austen urges Fanny to get over him.
............
It's a sudden shock, although one knew she is long gone, when letter LXXVI has her nephew, Lord Brabourne, inform readers about Jane Austen passing on; one had expected the letters to continue to last. Next two are letters from her sister Cassandra to their niece Fanny.
Below are some of interesting excerpts.
............
............
The preface to this, included in
Jane Austen: Complete Works
+ Extras - 83 titles
(Annotated and illustrated)
by Jane Austen.
Kindle Edition
Published April 21st 2013
by Bourville Publishing
(first published 1989)
ASIN:- B00CH82ACY
is so well written, giving a good picture of times and place the author lived in, that the temptation to quote therefrom is irresistible.
............
"The recent cult for Miss Austen, which has resulted in no less than ten new editions of her novels within a decade and three memoirs by different hands within as many years, have made the facts of her life familiar to most readers. It was a short life, and an uneventful one as viewed from the standpoint of our modern times, when steam and electricity have linked together the ends of the earth, and the very air seems teeming with news, agitations, discussions. We have barely time to recover our breath between post and post; and the morning paper with its statements of disaster and its hints of still greater evils to be, is scarcely out-lived, when, lo! in comes the evening issue, contradicting the news of the morning, to be sure, but full of omens and auguries of its own to strew our pillows with the seed of wakefulness.
"To us, publications come hot and hot from the press. Telegraphic wires like the intricate and incalculable zigzags of the lightning ramify above our heads; and who can tell at what moment their darts may strike? In Miss Austen's day the tranquil, drowsy, decorous English day of a century since, all was different. News travelled then from hand to hand, carried in creaking post-wagons, or in cases of extreme urgency by men on horseback. ... No doubt they lived the longer for this exemption from excitement, and kept their nerves in a state of wholesome repair; but it goes without saying that the events of which they knew so little did not stir them deeply.
"Miss Austen's life coincided with two of the momentous epochs of history, — the American struggle for independence, and the French Revolution; but there is scarcely an allusion to either in her letters. ... She was interested in the fleet and its victories because two of her brothers were in the navy and had promotion and prize-money to look forward to. In this connection she mentions Trafalgar and the Egyptian expedition, and generously remarks that she would read Southey's "Life of Nelson" if there was anything in it about her brother Frank! She honours Sir John Moore by remarking after his death that his mother would perhaps have preferred to have him less distinguished and still alive; further than that, the making of the gooseberry jam and a good recipe for orange wine interests her more than all the marchings and counter-marchings, the manoeuvres and diplomacies, going on the world over. ... "The society of rural England in those days," as Mr. Goldwin Smith happily puts it, "enjoyed a calm of its own in the midst of the European tempest like the windless centre of a circular storm.""
............
" ... Seeing little, she painted what she saw with absolute fidelity and a dexterity and perfection unequalled. ... Endowed with the keenest and most delicate insight and a vivid sense of humour, she depicted with exactitude what she observed and what she understood, giving to each fact and emotion its precise shade and value. The things she did not see she did not attempt. Affectation was impossible to her, — most of all, affectation of knowledge or feeling not justly her own. "She held the mirror up to her time" with an exquisite sincerity and fidelity; and the closeness of her study brought her intimately near to those hidden springs which underlie all human nature. This is the reason why, for all their skimp skirts, leg-of-mutton sleeves, and bygone impossible bonnets, her characters do not seem to us old-fashioned. Minds and hearts are made pretty much after the same pattern from century to century; and given a modern dress and speech, Emma or Elizabeth or dear Anne Eliot could enter a drawing-room today, and excite no surprise except by so closely resembling the people whom they would find there."
............
""I was very well pleased (pray tell Fanny) with a small portrait of Mrs. Bingley, excessively like her. I went in hopes of seeing one of her sister, but there was no Mrs. Darcy. Perhaps I may find her in the great exhibition, which we shall go to if we have time. Mrs. Bingley's is exactly like herself, — size, shaped face, features and sweetness; there never was a greater likeness. She is dressed in a white gown, with green ornaments, which convinces me of what I had always supposed, that green was a favourite colour with her. I dare say Mrs. D. will be in yellow."
"And later: —
""We have been both to the exhibition and Sir J. Reynolds'; and I am disappointed, for there was nothing like Mrs. D. at either. I can only imagine that Mr. D. prizes any picture of her too much to like it should be exposed to the public eye. I can imagine he would have that sort of feeling, — that mixture of love, pride, and delicacy.""
............
" ... But Cowper and Crabbe were the poetical sensations in Miss Austen's time, Scott and Byron its phenomenal novelties; it took months to get most books printed, and years to persuade anybody to read them. Furthermore the letters, in all probability, are carefully chosen to reveal only the more superficial side of their writer. There are wide gaps of omission, covering important events such as Mr. Austen's death, the long illness through which Jane nursed her brother Henry, and the anxieties and worries which his failure in business caused to the whole family. What is vouchsafed us is a glimpse of the girlish and untroubled moments of Miss Austen's life; and the glimpse is a sweet and friendly one. ... Her literary work never stood in the way of her home duties, any more than her "quiet, limpid, unimpassioned style" stood between her thought and her readers.
"Her fame may justly be said to be almost entirely posthumous. She was read and praised to a moderate degree during her lifetime, but all her novels together brought her no more than seven hundred pounds; and her reputation, as it were, was in its close-sheathed bud when, at the early age of forty-one, she died. It would have excited in her an amused incredulity, no doubt, had anyone predicted that two generations after her death the real recognition of her powers was to come. Time, which like desert sands has effaced the footprints of so many promising authors, has, with her, served as the desert wind, to blow aside those dusts of the commonplace which for a while concealed her true proportions. She is loved more than she ever hoped to be, and far more widely known."
............
"Scott, Macaulay, Sir James Mackintosh, Miss Martineau, Mrs. Ritchie, Miss Mitford, and a host of others have vied in their generous tributes of admiration. But most striking of all, to our thinking, is that paid to Miss Austen by Lord Tennyson when, in some visit to Lyme not many years since, those with him pointed out this and the other feature of the place only to be interrupted with —"Never mind all that. Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!" Could non-historical verisimilitude go farther or mean more?
"S. C. W.
"Newport, June, 1892."
............
............
"I.
"Steventon, Thursday (January 16, 1796)."
Austen was a normal girl - young woman - of her times, or of any -
"Our party to Ashe tomorrow night will consist of Edward Cooper, James (for a ball is nothing without him), Buller, who is now staying with us, and I. I look forward with great impatience to it, as I rather expect to receive an offer from my friend in the course of the evening. I shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white coat."
But the very next bit is her inner self, the author
"I am very much flattered by your commendation of my last letter, for I write only for fame, and without any view to pecuniary emolument."
Then again
Then again, we don't know if she's teasing -
"Tell Mary that I make over Mr. Heartley and all his estate to her for her sole use and benefit in future, and not only him, but all my other admirers into the bargain wherever she can find them, even the kiss which C. Powlett wanted to give me, as I mean to confine myself in future to Mr. Tom Lefroy, for whom I don't care sixpence."
Or later, whether she's serious -
"Friday. — At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea. Wm. Chute called here yesterday. I wonder what he means by being so civil."
................................................................................................
III.
Austen is occupied with travel, balls, and writing to Cassandra about it, throughout the letter, until there's this bit.
"Give my love to Mary Harrison, and tell her I wish, whenever she is attached to a young man, some respectable Dr. Marchmont may keep them apart for five volumes…."
Does that refer to writing about her?
............
IV.
Curious contents.
"I believe I told you in a former letter that Edward had some idea of taking the name of Claringbould; but that scheme is over, though it would be a very eligible as well as a very pleasant plan, would anyone advance him money enough to begin on. We rather expected Mr. Milles to have done so on Tuesday; but to our great surprise nothing was said on the subject, and unless it is in your power to assist your brother with five or six hundred pounds, he must entirely give up the idea."
And
"Mrs. Milles, Mr. John Toke, and in short everybody of any sensibility inquired in tender strains after you, and I took an opportunity of assuring Mr. J. T. that neither he nor his father need longer keep themselves single for you."
In midst, there's
"We went by Bifrons, and I contemplated with a melancholy pleasure the abode of him on whom I once fondly doted."
Which leaves one curious unless well versed with her life, of course. Then
"So His Royal Highness Sir Thomas Williams has at length sailed; the papers say "on a cruise." But I hope they are gone to Cork, or I shall have written in vain. Give my love to Jane, as she arrived at Steventon yesterday, I dare say."
Which is unclear - literal or sarcastic? Then a bomb -
"Mr. Children's two sons are both going to be married, John and George. They are to have one wife between them, a Miss Holwell, who belongs to the Black Hole at Calcutta. ... "
Further,
"Buy Mary Harrison's gown by all means. You shall have mine forever so much money, though, if I am tolerably rich when I get home, I shall like it very much myself."
Leaves one wondering.
............
VII.
"Steventon, Saturday (October 27).
"My dear Cassandra, —"
" ... I bought some Japan ink likewise, and next week shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend."
"Mrs. Hall, of Sherborne, was brought to bed yesterday of a dead child, some weeks before she expected, owing to a fright. I suppose she happened unawares to look at her husband."
"I hear that Martha is in better looks and spirits than she has enjoyed for a long time, and I flatter myself she will now be able to jest openly about Mr. W."
"The books from Winton are all unpacked and put away; the binding has compressed them most conveniently, and ....
............
Reading Jane Austen is nothing as much as looking into a mirror held to English life of her times, mainly life of home, involving men and women, characters and values - and most of it, with sense valued high, transcends time and place, so isn't strange or foreign to readers even couple of centuries later. Reading letters written by the author, personal and mostly to family members, is not different in this sense, except they are naturally more intimate and so more of a close up mirror, viewed by the reader invisible to the characters who were real, long since gone.
Slowly one begins to see her through them, a woman quite involved in her family and everyday life in small details. She mentions her writing but rarely, and speaks of details of family and clan, cousins and nephews and nieces; of servants and food, prices and salaries, livings and commissions and promotions, visits and visitors and travels.
And more than anything else, of dresses, balls, dances. One begins to see why, after reading so much of her work, and liking most, Elizabeth Bennett remains the central figure - because she's as close to the author herself as can get, a mirror image as Jane Austen saw herself. She reads, but isn't bookish like Mary Bennet. She's interested in clothes and balls and dancing, but isn't silly like or crazy like the two youngest Bennet girls. And she's decent, but not Jane Bennet. She's sensible, like her writing.
............
It isn't until close to halfway that one clearly sees a reference to her own writing, in the thirty fifth letter - there is a reference before, or two, but very fleeting, and this one is very brief, too.
The letter mentioning publication of her most well known, most popular, most quintessential work, mentions not the title, but her best known character by name, and this letter, fortieth, does not disappoint - it's short, but is all about the book; what's more, she states flat out -
" ... Elizabeth. 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. "!
And the next one continues about Pride and Prejudice, but is startling-
"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 Buonaparte, or something that would form a contrast ... "
Heaven forbid!
............
Somewhere between the fiftieth and the sixtieth letter, after she's talked about her family's reception of Mansfield Park, there is another surprise- Jane Austen is writing to her niece Anna about the latter working on her own novel, and most of us not professionally acquainted with history of English literature are likely to be surprised that the Austen family as such isn't counted anywhere near the Bronte family as more than one author being involved therein; didn't Anna get to publish? Are the manuscripts gone?
Letter LXII, to her niece Fanny, presumably one we've been reading about in most of her letters to Cassandra and now grown up, is so very like her writing in her most popular works, filled with sensible advice about love and realities, it's a positive delight reading it. This continues in letter LXVI.
............
It's startling reading her next letter to - presumably her niece - Anna, where she goes
"The chief news from this country is ... "
and one naturally infers that its her newly married niece Anna who is, presumably with her husband, at the country of his posting, perhaps in India, or somewhere as distant, this being the era of rising power of the British empire.
But the very next paragraph brings
"I think I understand the country about Hendon from your description. ",
explaining the mistake one -naturally! - made in inferring so - she's only speaking of country as in town vs countryside!
Letter sixty-six is a tad surprising, in that it criticises a nuece Annato another niece Fanny, about trifles that were better spoken to with Anna, privately and directly. The author's opinions and attitude about things aren't unfamiliar, but it does seem bordering incorrect that she criticises one niece to another, in a letter, rather than privately talk the matter over with the niece concerned.
It's amusing, when further she says
"Thank you, but it is not settled yet whether I do hazard a second edition. We are to see Egerton today, when it will probably be determined. People are more ready to borrow and praise than to buy, which I cannot wonder at; but though I like praise as well as anybody, I like what Edward calls "Pewter" too.",
having just criticised one niece to another for spending on a pianoforte and a pelisse, which she obviously considers extravagance - or were books so cheap in England as to be a negligible expense in her day, for anyone capable of reading?
That's to say, if there were no concept in her time of public libraries. Which would amount to the reason why rich had libraries at home, whether anyone read anything at all ever, or little, while poor being unread, unwashed, subcultures was presumed natural order of things in West generally.
But whether there were libraries or not, there was a middle class struggling to stay afloat, to manage poor finances - as for example on a curate's living, or even a vicar with a sizable family - while struggling to stay decent, reasonably decently dressed and so forth, in the difficult pre industrial era - and Austen is very familiar with it all, having described it so well in Sense and Sensibility, apart from her minute discussion of muslin and prices in her letters. Surely she was familiar with books or borrowers being not necessarily damaged by borrowing, unlike clothes or furniture?
............
The very next letter, LXVII, however, is accompanied with a postscript from Lord Brabourne, a nephew of the author, informing the reader about the ill health of her brother and her being feeble perhaps as a consequence of the worry, and the subsequent plight of the family when, after his recovery, his bank failed, affecting the circumstances of them all. It affects one as one reads it, decades over two centuries later, such is the identification of a reader with the author and her near and dear, as an effect of reading this compilation of her letters.
LXXIII has matter that makes one wonder, was Northanger Abbey inspired from an episode in life of author's niece, Fanny Knight? In the book the couple was united, by him leaving his father; here, Austen urges Fanny to get over him.
............
It's a sudden shock, although one knew she is long gone, when letter LXXVI has her nephew, Lord Brabourne, inform readers about Jane Austen passing on; one had expected the letters to continue to last. Next two are letters from her sister Cassandra to their niece Fanny.
Below are some of interesting excerpts.
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The preface to this, included in
Jane Austen: Complete Works
+ Extras - 83 titles
(Annotated and illustrated)
by Jane Austen.
Kindle Edition
Published April 21st 2013
by Bourville Publishing
(first published 1989)
ASIN:- B00CH82ACY
is so well written, giving a good picture of times and place the author lived in, that the temptation to quote therefrom is irresistible.
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"The recent cult for Miss Austen, which has resulted in no less than ten new editions of her novels within a decade and three memoirs by different hands within as many years, have made the facts of her life familiar to most readers. It was a short life, and an uneventful one as viewed from the standpoint of our modern times, when steam and electricity have linked together the ends of the earth, and the very air seems teeming with news, agitations, discussions. We have barely time to recover our breath between post and post; and the morning paper with its statements of disaster and its hints of still greater evils to be, is scarcely out-lived, when, lo! in comes the evening issue, contradicting the news of the morning, to be sure, but full of omens and auguries of its own to strew our pillows with the seed of wakefulness.
"To us, publications come hot and hot from the press. Telegraphic wires like the intricate and incalculable zigzags of the lightning ramify above our heads; and who can tell at what moment their darts may strike? In Miss Austen's day the tranquil, drowsy, decorous English day of a century since, all was different. News travelled then from hand to hand, carried in creaking post-wagons, or in cases of extreme urgency by men on horseback. ... No doubt they lived the longer for this exemption from excitement, and kept their nerves in a state of wholesome repair; but it goes without saying that the events of which they knew so little did not stir them deeply.
"Miss Austen's life coincided with two of the momentous epochs of history, — the American struggle for independence, and the French Revolution; but there is scarcely an allusion to either in her letters. ... She was interested in the fleet and its victories because two of her brothers were in the navy and had promotion and prize-money to look forward to. In this connection she mentions Trafalgar and the Egyptian expedition, and generously remarks that she would read Southey's "Life of Nelson" if there was anything in it about her brother Frank! She honours Sir John Moore by remarking after his death that his mother would perhaps have preferred to have him less distinguished and still alive; further than that, the making of the gooseberry jam and a good recipe for orange wine interests her more than all the marchings and counter-marchings, the manoeuvres and diplomacies, going on the world over. ... "The society of rural England in those days," as Mr. Goldwin Smith happily puts it, "enjoyed a calm of its own in the midst of the European tempest like the windless centre of a circular storm.""
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" ... Seeing little, she painted what she saw with absolute fidelity and a dexterity and perfection unequalled. ... Endowed with the keenest and most delicate insight and a vivid sense of humour, she depicted with exactitude what she observed and what she understood, giving to each fact and emotion its precise shade and value. The things she did not see she did not attempt. Affectation was impossible to her, — most of all, affectation of knowledge or feeling not justly her own. "She held the mirror up to her time" with an exquisite sincerity and fidelity; and the closeness of her study brought her intimately near to those hidden springs which underlie all human nature. This is the reason why, for all their skimp skirts, leg-of-mutton sleeves, and bygone impossible bonnets, her characters do not seem to us old-fashioned. Minds and hearts are made pretty much after the same pattern from century to century; and given a modern dress and speech, Emma or Elizabeth or dear Anne Eliot could enter a drawing-room today, and excite no surprise except by so closely resembling the people whom they would find there."
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""I was very well pleased (pray tell Fanny) with a small portrait of Mrs. Bingley, excessively like her. I went in hopes of seeing one of her sister, but there was no Mrs. Darcy. Perhaps I may find her in the great exhibition, which we shall go to if we have time. Mrs. Bingley's is exactly like herself, — size, shaped face, features and sweetness; there never was a greater likeness. She is dressed in a white gown, with green ornaments, which convinces me of what I had always supposed, that green was a favourite colour with her. I dare say Mrs. D. will be in yellow."
"And later: —
""We have been both to the exhibition and Sir J. Reynolds'; and I am disappointed, for there was nothing like Mrs. D. at either. I can only imagine that Mr. D. prizes any picture of her too much to like it should be exposed to the public eye. I can imagine he would have that sort of feeling, — that mixture of love, pride, and delicacy.""
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" ... But Cowper and Crabbe were the poetical sensations in Miss Austen's time, Scott and Byron its phenomenal novelties; it took months to get most books printed, and years to persuade anybody to read them. Furthermore the letters, in all probability, are carefully chosen to reveal only the more superficial side of their writer. There are wide gaps of omission, covering important events such as Mr. Austen's death, the long illness through which Jane nursed her brother Henry, and the anxieties and worries which his failure in business caused to the whole family. What is vouchsafed us is a glimpse of the girlish and untroubled moments of Miss Austen's life; and the glimpse is a sweet and friendly one. ... Her literary work never stood in the way of her home duties, any more than her "quiet, limpid, unimpassioned style" stood between her thought and her readers.
"Her fame may justly be said to be almost entirely posthumous. She was read and praised to a moderate degree during her lifetime, but all her novels together brought her no more than seven hundred pounds; and her reputation, as it were, was in its close-sheathed bud when, at the early age of forty-one, she died. It would have excited in her an amused incredulity, no doubt, had anyone predicted that two generations after her death the real recognition of her powers was to come. Time, which like desert sands has effaced the footprints of so many promising authors, has, with her, served as the desert wind, to blow aside those dusts of the commonplace which for a while concealed her true proportions. She is loved more than she ever hoped to be, and far more widely known."
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"Scott, Macaulay, Sir James Mackintosh, Miss Martineau, Mrs. Ritchie, Miss Mitford, and a host of others have vied in their generous tributes of admiration. But most striking of all, to our thinking, is that paid to Miss Austen by Lord Tennyson when, in some visit to Lyme not many years since, those with him pointed out this and the other feature of the place only to be interrupted with —"Never mind all that. Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!" Could non-historical verisimilitude go farther or mean more?
"S. C. W.
"Newport, June, 1892."
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"I.
"Steventon, Thursday (January 16, 1796)."
Austen was a normal girl - young woman - of her times, or of any -
"Our party to Ashe tomorrow night will consist of Edward Cooper, James (for a ball is nothing without him), Buller, who is now staying with us, and I. I look forward with great impatience to it, as I rather expect to receive an offer from my friend in the course of the evening. I shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white coat."
But the very next bit is her inner self, the author
"I am very much flattered by your commendation of my last letter, for I write only for fame, and without any view to pecuniary emolument."
Then again
Then again, we don't know if she's teasing -
"Tell Mary that I make over Mr. Heartley and all his estate to her for her sole use and benefit in future, and not only him, but all my other admirers into the bargain wherever she can find them, even the kiss which C. Powlett wanted to give me, as I mean to confine myself in future to Mr. Tom Lefroy, for whom I don't care sixpence."
Or later, whether she's serious -
"Friday. — At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea. Wm. Chute called here yesterday. I wonder what he means by being so civil."
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III.
Austen is occupied with travel, balls, and writing to Cassandra about it, throughout the letter, until there's this bit.
"Give my love to Mary Harrison, and tell her I wish, whenever she is attached to a young man, some respectable Dr. Marchmont may keep them apart for five volumes…."
Does that refer to writing about her?
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IV.
Curious contents.
"I believe I told you in a former letter that Edward had some idea of taking the name of Claringbould; but that scheme is over, though it would be a very eligible as well as a very pleasant plan, would anyone advance him money enough to begin on. We rather expected Mr. Milles to have done so on Tuesday; but to our great surprise nothing was said on the subject, and unless it is in your power to assist your brother with five or six hundred pounds, he must entirely give up the idea."
And
"Mrs. Milles, Mr. John Toke, and in short everybody of any sensibility inquired in tender strains after you, and I took an opportunity of assuring Mr. J. T. that neither he nor his father need longer keep themselves single for you."
In midst, there's
"We went by Bifrons, and I contemplated with a melancholy pleasure the abode of him on whom I once fondly doted."
Which leaves one curious unless well versed with her life, of course. Then
"So His Royal Highness Sir Thomas Williams has at length sailed; the papers say "on a cruise." But I hope they are gone to Cork, or I shall have written in vain. Give my love to Jane, as she arrived at Steventon yesterday, I dare say."
Which is unclear - literal or sarcastic? Then a bomb -
"Mr. Children's two sons are both going to be married, John and George. They are to have one wife between them, a Miss Holwell, who belongs to the Black Hole at Calcutta. ... "
Further,
"Buy Mary Harrison's gown by all means. You shall have mine forever so much money, though, if I am tolerably rich when I get home, I shall like it very much myself."
Leaves one wondering.
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VII.
"Steventon, Saturday (October 27).
"My dear Cassandra, —"
" ... I bought some Japan ink likewise, and next week shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend."
"Mrs. Hall, of Sherborne, was brought to bed yesterday of a dead child, some weeks before she expected, owing to a fright. I suppose she happened unawares to look at her husband."
"I hear that Martha is in better looks and spirits than she has enjoyed for a long time, and I flatter myself she will now be able to jest openly about Mr. W."
"The books from Winton are all unpacked and put away; the binding has compressed them most conveniently, and ....
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June 19, 2025
J'ai tellement à vous dire que je ne sais par où commencer. Par la préface alors peut-être, qui remet magnifiquement les choses en perspective ? Les lettres de Jane Austen, je ne les conseille qu'aux inconditionnelles de l'autrice, pour plusieurs raisons que Deirdre le Faye explique très bien. Souvent, les courriers d'auteurs et d'autrices qui nous sont parvenues aujourd'hui ont été écrits par des personnes qui savaient ou se doutaient que leur correspondance serait lue un jour. Ce n'est pas le cas de Jane Austen, ses échanges ne sont donc pas tournés pour amuser ou édifier le public, ils sont naturels, faits de petites choses, l'équivalent de nos coups de téléphone peut-être, sans les infos croustillantes que Cassandra a pris soin de supprimer malheureusement... Alors si vous êtes prêts à lire des lignes et des lignes sur les allées et venues des voisins, des frères, des neveux et des nièces, sur le dernier chapeau de l'autrice ou sur la couleur de sa robe et sur le nombre de couples qui ont dansé au dernier bal, ce recueil est fait pour vous. Moi, j'adore.
J'adore parce qu'on entre dans son quotidien, au plus près de Jane Austen, de ses humeurs, bien visibles au fil des pages, j'adore parce qu'on la voit sans artifice justement, elle et sa plume et j'adore parce que son humour n'est jamais loin et qu'il n'épargne personne, surtout pas sa famille. Je m'en délecte. Certains passages sont plus difficiles à lire, quand elle perd son père par exemple, et qu'on la sent extrêmement déprimée, quand son avenir est incertain et qu'elle ne cache pas son ressentiment vis-à-vis de ses frères... Mais on assiste aussi à ses premières publications et on partage sa joie et son amour pour ses livres, ses enfants chéris. C'est l'ensemble qui est si touchant.
Il faut aussi s'attendre à éprouver de la frustration en lisant ses lettres. La frustration de ne pas toutes les avoir bien sûr, de savoir que beaucoup sont parties en fumée, mais surtout pour ma part, la frustration de ne pas avoir les réponses, surtout celles de Cassandra qui semblait également être une femme drôle et brillante. Et puis arrive la dernière lettre, celle qui annonce le décès de Jane Austen, et comme toujours, j'ai pleuré.
Il faut quand même que je vous parle de la forme de l'ouvrage lui-même aussi, qui explique pourquoi je n'ai pas mis la note maximum à ce livre, c'est simple, j'ai détesté. Le livre est énorme, ça ne donne pas envie de le lire, ce n'est pas pratique à lire et c'est très lourd. J'ai enlevé la jaquette pour la préserver mais la couverture du livre s'imprègne de la moindre marque de doigt.
Enfin, ces notes, parlons-en... Les notes séparées, à la fin, ce n'est jamais une bonne idée. Ça coupe sans arrêt la lecture de façon très désagréable, surtout quand elles n'apportent pas grand chose. Personnellement, j'ai trouvé que très peu d'entre elles avaient de l'intérêt et quand j'aurais aimé une explication sur un sujet ou un autre, il n'y en avait pas. J'ai donc fini par ne plus les lire, tout simplement.
La bonne nouvelle, c'est que la traduction française prévue depuis plusieurs années chez Finitude devrait enfin sortir cette année, au mois d'octobre. Espérons que la forme soit plus agréable.
http://janeausten.hautetfort.com/arch...
J'adore parce qu'on entre dans son quotidien, au plus près de Jane Austen, de ses humeurs, bien visibles au fil des pages, j'adore parce qu'on la voit sans artifice justement, elle et sa plume et j'adore parce que son humour n'est jamais loin et qu'il n'épargne personne, surtout pas sa famille. Je m'en délecte. Certains passages sont plus difficiles à lire, quand elle perd son père par exemple, et qu'on la sent extrêmement déprimée, quand son avenir est incertain et qu'elle ne cache pas son ressentiment vis-à-vis de ses frères... Mais on assiste aussi à ses premières publications et on partage sa joie et son amour pour ses livres, ses enfants chéris. C'est l'ensemble qui est si touchant.
Il faut aussi s'attendre à éprouver de la frustration en lisant ses lettres. La frustration de ne pas toutes les avoir bien sûr, de savoir que beaucoup sont parties en fumée, mais surtout pour ma part, la frustration de ne pas avoir les réponses, surtout celles de Cassandra qui semblait également être une femme drôle et brillante. Et puis arrive la dernière lettre, celle qui annonce le décès de Jane Austen, et comme toujours, j'ai pleuré.
Il faut quand même que je vous parle de la forme de l'ouvrage lui-même aussi, qui explique pourquoi je n'ai pas mis la note maximum à ce livre, c'est simple, j'ai détesté. Le livre est énorme, ça ne donne pas envie de le lire, ce n'est pas pratique à lire et c'est très lourd. J'ai enlevé la jaquette pour la préserver mais la couverture du livre s'imprègne de la moindre marque de doigt.
Enfin, ces notes, parlons-en... Les notes séparées, à la fin, ce n'est jamais une bonne idée. Ça coupe sans arrêt la lecture de façon très désagréable, surtout quand elles n'apportent pas grand chose. Personnellement, j'ai trouvé que très peu d'entre elles avaient de l'intérêt et quand j'aurais aimé une explication sur un sujet ou un autre, il n'y en avait pas. J'ai donc fini par ne plus les lire, tout simplement.
La bonne nouvelle, c'est que la traduction française prévue depuis plusieurs années chez Finitude devrait enfin sortir cette année, au mois d'octobre. Espérons que la forme soit plus agréable.
http://janeausten.hautetfort.com/arch...
January 26, 2025
As a very long time Jane Austen fan, I figured it was about time I read through this collection of letters I've had on my shelves for years. There are several reasons why I really did not enjoy this.
Firstly, it was just a matter of over-saturation. The majority of the info found here is stuff I already know from reading so many biographies on Jane. It was interesting to see the source of that biographical info, but I didn't learn a lot.
Secondly, reading these letters served to bring my respect for her down quite a bit. I've known for a long time she wasn't the quiet, mousy, timid little sister implied by so many, especially fictional, representations of her. Yet, while I've always thought her to be playfully witty and sarcastic, there are times in her letters when she is downright mean. More than once I thought how much she reminded me of Caroline Bingley -- and worse. In fact, the things she says about people's looks, weight, intelligence, right to exist, etc. in her letters are worse than the words of any villainous snob she's ever introduced us to. Perhaps it's unfair to be reading her private correspondence, especially to her sister whom she would have been most open with. However, this gives us the most intimate look into her character and, in many ways, it's not pretty.
I also just have some issues with this book's design. I didn't like the way it was arranged --- all letters to one person put together, rather than all letters put chronologically to give us a picture of her timeline. It was also very badly made with the pages being glued unevenly so I had to literally break the spine to get it open enough to read. I'll be looking for a better made collection and this one will be thrown out.
Firstly, it was just a matter of over-saturation. The majority of the info found here is stuff I already know from reading so many biographies on Jane. It was interesting to see the source of that biographical info, but I didn't learn a lot.
Secondly, reading these letters served to bring my respect for her down quite a bit. I've known for a long time she wasn't the quiet, mousy, timid little sister implied by so many, especially fictional, representations of her. Yet, while I've always thought her to be playfully witty and sarcastic, there are times in her letters when she is downright mean. More than once I thought how much she reminded me of Caroline Bingley -- and worse. In fact, the things she says about people's looks, weight, intelligence, right to exist, etc. in her letters are worse than the words of any villainous snob she's ever introduced us to. Perhaps it's unfair to be reading her private correspondence, especially to her sister whom she would have been most open with. However, this gives us the most intimate look into her character and, in many ways, it's not pretty.
I also just have some issues with this book's design. I didn't like the way it was arranged --- all letters to one person put together, rather than all letters put chronologically to give us a picture of her timeline. It was also very badly made with the pages being glued unevenly so I had to literally break the spine to get it open enough to read. I'll be looking for a better made collection and this one will be thrown out.
October 29, 2024
I love her!
November 2, 2024
I absolutely loved this!
March 6, 2025
I’m very glad that I read Le Faye’s biography on Austen before reading these letters - it really helped contextually.
December 11, 2025
Libro escrito a base de cartas de la autora, pero resulta aburrido
August 5, 2018
I recently visited Chawton and Jane Austen’s house there. I am of course a huge Jane Austen fan and loved visiting the place where she resided for the last years of her life. Having been there, knowing a lot of her history, and knowing a lot about her family really helped me “understand” these letters. This collection is not so much for understanding but more of a glimpse into Jane’s life. Most of the letters are addressed to her sister Cassandra, with whom she was very close, and some are addressed to her niece Fanny. For some reading this (or listening, I happened to listen to an excellent free recording on LibriVox by Elizabeth Klett) it might be tedious but I found it fascinating from a historical and female perspective. She talks about purchasing fabric, sewing handkerchiefs, what she plans to wear to a ball, etc. She mentions many relations which they called upon or people who came for dinner, etc. So for some, these parts of her letters might not be as intriguing.
This collection lacks any context whatsoever about who some people are, location, well anything! I definitely recommend studying up on Jane Austen’s family tree to at least vaguely know who she is talking about. Again, my recent visit to Chawton and other Jane Austen sights made me familiar with her life story and events of her life.
But this is Jane Austen we are talking about. Her letters are full of hidden treasures and witty observations of life. They also reference her published works (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park). I really enjoyed getting to know Jane Austen in such a personal way and through the person she was closest to in the world, her sister. Her writing style is more relaxed but you can see the genius author underneath. I might be bias (because of my low-key obsession with her) but I really enjoyed her letters!
This collection lacks any context whatsoever about who some people are, location, well anything! I definitely recommend studying up on Jane Austen’s family tree to at least vaguely know who she is talking about. Again, my recent visit to Chawton and other Jane Austen sights made me familiar with her life story and events of her life.
But this is Jane Austen we are talking about. Her letters are full of hidden treasures and witty observations of life. They also reference her published works (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park). I really enjoyed getting to know Jane Austen in such a personal way and through the person she was closest to in the world, her sister. Her writing style is more relaxed but you can see the genius author underneath. I might be bias (because of my low-key obsession with her) but I really enjoyed her letters!
August 9, 2020
Do not assume that because you love Jane Austen’s novels you’ll love her letters. Most of these are entirely domestic, particular, and dull; only a few are of any interest, and none are exceptionally interesting, unless to Austen scholars or students of the period.
The essential problem is this. The vast majority of the letters are to Jane’s sister Cassandra. These deal with the minutiae of upper-class English feminine life at the turn of the 19th century: births, deaths, visits, marriages contemplated and commenced, purchases of cloth, the fashioning of clothes, and the wearing of clothes to dances. These details are related without much in the way of commentary or insight. The English style is nothing like her novels and only occasionally worth notice. The relatives and neighbors described, and the bonnets and sheets of muslin and so forth, must have been of interest to the two sisters; they can be of little interest, except as instances of historical detritus, to anyone else.
The letters to Cassandra represent about 90% of all the letters, and nearly 100% of the ones written prior to 1814. Things do pick up in about 1814, as Austen negotiates the publication of Emma with her publisher John Murray and interacts with a few admirers of her work. She becomes slightly more philosophical, and considerably less trivial. The book begins to approximate interesting. The last two letters in the collection, written by Cassandra and addressed to a beloved niece, are historically significant, well-written, and touching.
The essential problem is this. The vast majority of the letters are to Jane’s sister Cassandra. These deal with the minutiae of upper-class English feminine life at the turn of the 19th century: births, deaths, visits, marriages contemplated and commenced, purchases of cloth, the fashioning of clothes, and the wearing of clothes to dances. These details are related without much in the way of commentary or insight. The English style is nothing like her novels and only occasionally worth notice. The relatives and neighbors described, and the bonnets and sheets of muslin and so forth, must have been of interest to the two sisters; they can be of little interest, except as instances of historical detritus, to anyone else.
The letters to Cassandra represent about 90% of all the letters, and nearly 100% of the ones written prior to 1814. Things do pick up in about 1814, as Austen negotiates the publication of Emma with her publisher John Murray and interacts with a few admirers of her work. She becomes slightly more philosophical, and considerably less trivial. The book begins to approximate interesting. The last two letters in the collection, written by Cassandra and addressed to a beloved niece, are historically significant, well-written, and touching.
September 1, 2020
Much as I love the novels of Jane Austen I was a tad disappointed with these letters. These largely talked about purchases and vists to or from other people. Only in the last maybe 20% of the book (later letters to her niece Fanny) did I get any real feel of the writer's thoughts and feelings. But then Jane's sister Cassandra burnt most of the letters so we may postulate that those were the ones which most revealed their writer.
Generally I love reading letters because they can give a window into the real person. In particular the letters appearing in Vol 2 of Bertrand Russell's autobiography are fascinating. Not so here. However the accumulation of information from Jane Austen's letters does open a window into her novels. There are the style of interpersonal relationships, the fears and doubts of that time. It took me most of the book to actually enter the thinking and the ethos of that time, more than 200 years ago but surprisingly it was worth it. It does help if you have read the six main novels though and even ventured into Sanditon, Lady Susan, and The Watsons.
Generally I love reading letters because they can give a window into the real person. In particular the letters appearing in Vol 2 of Bertrand Russell's autobiography are fascinating. Not so here. However the accumulation of information from Jane Austen's letters does open a window into her novels. There are the style of interpersonal relationships, the fears and doubts of that time. It took me most of the book to actually enter the thinking and the ethos of that time, more than 200 years ago but surprisingly it was worth it. It does help if you have read the six main novels though and even ventured into Sanditon, Lady Susan, and The Watsons.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews