You’ve no doubt heard about the auction of Jane Austen’s manuscript for her unpublished 1804 novel, The Watsons, by Sotheby’s — for a rather large return, that of almost $1.6 million. A tasty recipe, indeed, Jane.
The BBC produced an eight part film, The Real Jane Austen, with excerpts from their productions of Ms. Austen’s novels, narrated by Anna Chancellor. (You might track Ms. Chancellor’s career itself from the character she played in Four Weddings and A Funeral to various television roles.)
A brief history of Jane Austen that accompanied an exhibit by the Morgan Library follows; the Library owns the first part of The Watson’s manuscript, numbering about 12 pages:
JANE AUSTEN
Jane Austen was born in 1775 into a rural middle-class family. Her father, George Austen, was the rector at Steventon, a small village in the southern English county of Hampshire. Her mother, Cassandra Austen, was a member of a prominent family. Austen’s immediate family included six brothers and one sister, also named Cassandra, who remained Jane’s closest friend and confidante throughout her life.
At an early age, the two sisters were sent to Oxford for schooling. Both girls, however, caught typhus and returned home. Two years later, they were once again sent away to school. At the age of eleven, Jane Austen finished her formal education and returned home. It was in this environment, encouraged by her family — all enthusiastic readers themselves — that she began to write poems, stories, and plays for her family’s as well as her own amusement.
As Austen grew into adulthood, she continued to work on her fiction while taking part in the everyday activities of young women of her time — she practiced the pianoforte, assisted in supervising servants, sewed, socialized frequently at dances and balls, traveled to visit family members, and detailed these activities in numerous witty and amusing letters, mostly to Cassandra.
She continued to write short pieces and shared them with her family. Most likely first composed in 1794–95, Austen’s first surviving novel, Lady Susan, about a wicked yet enchanting widow who is determined to find a husband at any cost for herself and her retiring daughter, was written as a series of letters. It was a longer and more sophisticated story than were her previous efforts. Lady Susan was never published during her lifetime; it was not until 1811 that her first major novel, Sense and Sensibility, was printed. This was followed by Pride and Prejudice (initially entitled First Impressions; 1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), and the posthumous Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1817).
In 1816 Austen became ill but continued writing. She died in 1817, at the age of 41.
“Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.” — Jane Austen
Image: Anonymous, British School (nineteenth century) Miniature portrait of Jane Austen Watercolor on ivory [England], The Morgan Library & Museum. Photography by Schecter Lee, 2009.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.