Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

first novel, Castle Rackrent, published in 1800. This is perhaps the best of her writings, because the least interfered with; most of her books had to undergo the revision and general tinkering of her conceited and pedantic father. Belinda followed in 1801, and Irish Bulls in 1802. Their success made her famous not in this country alone, but on the Continent, and when the Edgeworths went to Paris in 1802-3 they found the best society eagerly opened to them. Occasional visits to London, Paris, Switzerland, and Scotland were the diversions of the remainder of her life, mainly spent in her Irish home. In so quiet an existence, the arrival of Sir Walter Scott, as a guest at Edgeworthstown in 1825, formed an epoch. She published two series of Fashionable Tales, 1809-12, of a didactic and hortatory nature, which were eagerly read by her large public. Towards the end of her life she gave herself to practical philanthropy, and in spite of her great age was untiring throughout the famine of 1846. She died at Edgeworthstown, after a few hours' illness, on the 22nd of May 1849. Byron's description of Maria Edgeworth could not be improved: "She was (in 1813) a nice little unassuming 'Jeanie Deans'-looking body,' and if not handsome, certainly

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

in the parsonage of the latter village, half-way between the towns of Whitchurch and Basington in Hampshire, on the 16th of December 1775. Her mother's name was Cassandra Leigh, a witty member of a family of wits. Jane and her elder sister, another Cassandra, were educated at home. Nothing could exceed the quietness of her existence, which was, however, cheerful, easy, and surrounded by mirth and affection. At a very early age she began to write "stories of a slight and flimsy texture, intended to be nonsensical." This was followed by a period of burlesque imitation of the extravagant romances of the day. The earliest of her writings which we possess is the short tale, in letters, called Lady Susan, written when she was about seventeen. A novel called Elinor and Marianne has not survived, but is understood to have been a first sketch for Sense and Sensibility. Finally, when in her twenty-first year she began Pride and Prejudice, which she finished in August 1797, Sense and Sensibility, as we now know, immediately followed, and Northanger Abbey belongs to 1798. But none of these admirable books was at that time published. Pride and Prejudice was offered to a publisher of novels, who refused even to look at it, while Northanger Abbey was bought for £10 by a bookseller at Bath, who locked it up in a drawer and forgot it. Jane Austen seems to have taken her disappointment-which is one of the most extraordinary in the history

of literature-with perfect composure, but she ceased to write. In May 1801 her father resigned his livings to his son, and moved into Bath, where for nearly four years the Austens lived at 4 Sydney Place. There is very little evidence of the novelist's state of mind or of her occupations during these years; we only know that she wrote nothing at Bath, except the fragment called The Watsons. After the death of her father, in 1805, she went to Southampton, where she, her mother, and her sister occupied "a commodious, old-fashioned house in a corner of Castle Square." Four more years passed

in silence, and it was not until they went to live at Chawton Cottage, a little house about a mile from Alton, and close to the parish of her birth, that Jane Austen's faculty revived. In 1811, at the age of thirty-six, she

made her

first appearance

[graphic]

as

an author, with her old Sense and Sensibility, for which she was now paid £150. While this book was going through the press, she was writing a new one, Mansfield Park, which

she does not seem to have finished until 1814. Meanwhile Fride and Prejudice had at last been published. Mansfield

The Parlour in Chawton Cottage, with Jane Austen's Desk

Park followed, and Jane Austen was now actively employed in the composition of Emma, which appeared in the winter of 1315. This was made the occasion for an article on Miss Austen's novels, now four in number, in the Quarterly Review, an article which did more than anything else to lift her name into celebrity, and which it has only lately (1898) been discovered was written by no less celebrated a reviewer than Sir Walter Scott. Amusingly enough, Jane Austen records, just about this time, that she too is writing "a critique on Walter Scott;" but these two illustrious persons never came into any personal relation. In 1815 Miss

Austen's health began to fail, but she continued to write, and Persuasion is the work of the last year of her life. In the summer of 1817 she was so ill, that she was persuaded

~21འ་ད་་MTT}་་““mRT}[t{T

House in College Street, Winchester, where

Jane Austen died

to go to Winchester for medical advice; the sisters took lodg ings then in College Street. There Jane died on the 18th of July 1817, and six days later was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Jane Austen had a vivacious face, with brilliant eyes and hair; her "whole appearance expressed health and animation." She had no literary affectations; her novels. were written and revised at a small mahogany desk in the general sitting-room at Chawton, a covering being merely thrown over the MS. if a visitor called. No critical phrase expresses the character of her apparatus so fully as her own famous one of "the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory." She liked the best authors of her day, and in particular Crabbe, with whose genius her own had

[graphic]

an obvious affinity. She is recorded to have said in joke, "that if she ever married, she could fancy being Mrs. Crabbe." No love-affair less Platonic than this is believed. to have disturbed her heart.

FROM "EMMA."

A very little quiet reflection was enough to satisfy Emma as to the nature of her agitation on hearing this news of Frank Churchill. She was soon convinced that it was not for herself she was feeling at all apprehensive or embarrassed-it was for him. Her own attachment had really subsided into a mere nothing-it was not worth thinking of; but if he, who had undoubtedly been always so much the most in love of the two, were to

[ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

упут

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

I can return the compliment, by thanking you for the
Letter Mesterday, & as I like unexpected pleasure.

unexpected pleasure of your Letter Mesterdays,

[ocr errors]

dhope

it made one very happy; and indeed, you need not apologies for you Letter in any respect, for it is all very fine, but not too fine diese to be written again, something like it. I think Edward will mist suffer much longer from heat; by the look of Things this morn 7. I sustart the weather is sising into the balsamic Northwest._ It has been hot here, as you may suppose, since it was se hot with you, but I have not suffered from it at all, nor felt felt it is such a degree imgine it would be anything in the Country. Everybody

[ocr errors]

has tatted of the theat, but I set it all down to London.

[ocr errors]

as to

I give you joy of ou new trephew, I hope if he ever comes ifte The ever comes to be hanget, it will not be till we are too old to care about it. - It is a quart comfort to have it to safety & speedily over. The Miss Curlings must be hard worked in writing so many Letter, but the crovelty of it may recommend it to them; - mine was

+ The says that my Brother am never too busy to think

[ocr errors]

mother

case

may

from Miss Eliza,

ansive today.

of S&S I can no mou

_No indeed, I

forget it, than

•farget her sucking child; & I am much obliged to you for your enquiries. I have had two sheets to correct, but the last only brings us to. W. v first appearance. Mrs F. regreto, It in the most flattering manner that she must wait till May, but is have scarcely as hope of it's being out in June. — Henry does not neglect it; he has hurried the Pruiter, & says he will see It will not stand still during his abtinic

home again today.

γ

Letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra

« AnteriorContinuar »