This is a delightful collection of letters Jane Austen wrote, drafted, or received while living at Chawton House with the exception of the last heart-wrenching letter written from the house by Jane’s beloved sister, Cassandra, to their niece, Fanny, just after Jane’s death.
The letters were edited by a Trustee of the Jane Austen House Museum. The introductions to the collection and each letter are not to be missed as there is context all but a few readers would overlook or misunderstand. The page facing the introduction to each letter is a picture of part or all of each actual letter; Jane Austen’s writing was beautiful and even and can still be read by modern readers who know cursive.
A series of 1813 letters to her sister provide insight into Jane Austen’s feelings about her books, specifically after receiving an advance copy of “Pride and Prejudice:”
“I want to tell you that I have got my own darling Child from London…”
“I must confess that I think her [Elizabeth] as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, & how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know.—There are a few Typical errors—& a 'said he' or a 'said she would sometimes make the Dialogue more immediately clear-but ‘I do not write for such dull Elves'
“Upon the whole however I am quite vain enough & well satisfied enough.—The work is rather too light & bright & sparkling;—it wants shade;—it wants to be stretched out here & 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 Buonaparté—or anything that would form a contrast & bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness & Epigrammatism of the general stile.—I doubt your quite agreeing with me here.— I know your starched Notions.”
We get a snippet of Jane’s rather wicked sense of humor in an 1814 letter to her sister:
“John Warren & his wife are invited to dine here, to name own day in the next fortnight.—I do not expect them to come.— Wyndham Knatchbull is to be asked for Sunday he is cruel enough to consent, somebody must be contrived to meet him.”
Not to be missed are the actual or draft exchanges between Jane Austen and the Prince Regent’s secretary. After he suggests she write about certain topics, she gets out of the request by claiming that she ”…may boast myself to be, with all possible Vanity, the most unlearned, & uninformed Female who ever dared to be an Authoress.” The cheek of her! I do not for one minute believe Jane Austen actually thought herself stupid.
The last letter had me in tears. At the library, no less. Hopefully, no one thought I was in the middle of a break down!
This is a great way to dip into Jane’s life and letters in just 125 pages and is a nice companion to the novels mentioned (“Pride and Prejudice,” “Mansfield Park,” and “Emma”).