Pride and Prejudice terug op de t.v. 30-06-2011 20.50 uur, Nederland 2.

Het werk van de negentiende-eeuwse Britse schrijfster Jane Austen blijft verbazingwekkend populair.
Toen de BBC in 2003 een enquête hield naar het meest geliefde boek was, kwam Austens in 1813 gepubliceerde Pride and Prejudice op de tweede plaats, na The Lord of the Rings.
Austen, die haar werk aanvankelijk anoniem gepubliceerd zag, blinkt vooral uit door de haarscherpe observaties van de gedragingen van haar door sociale rangen en standen geobsedeerde Victoriaanse tijdgenoten. Die vrije, onafhankelijke blik en ironische toon maken haar werk universeel. Niet voor niets zijn de bewerkingen en verfilmingen van Austens romans legio. Haar Emma werd al eens met succes omgetoverd tot een Amerikaanse highschoolkomedie, en Pride and Prejudice kreeg als Bride & Prejudice een heerlijke Bollywoodbehandeling.

Het is dus beslist een aangenaam weerzien met de BBC-serie Pride and Prejudice uit 1995, die wordt beschouwd als een van de beste Austen-bewerkingen. In zes delen ontvouwt zich een superieure historische soap - of zedenschets als u het mooi wilt zeggen - met Jennifer Ehle als Elizabeth Bennet, een meisje van goede familie. Zij en haar vier zusjes zijn nog ongetrouwd, dus er ontstaat grote opschudding in huize Bennet wanneer op een naburig landgoed twee aantrekkelijke vrijgezellen worden gesignaleerd. Een van hen is de legendarische mister Darcy, een knappe man die zich weinig op zijn gemak schijnt te voelen in het zeer vormelijke sociale verkeer van die tijd.

Darcy's stroeve gedrag wordt met name door Elizabeth aangezien voor trots en arrogantie, en ze is maar wat tevreden met zichzelf dat ze hem zo goed weet te doorzien. Pas veel later zal ze daar geweldig veel spijt van krijgen.

De makers van de veelvuldig bekroonde serie waren vastbesloten er niet alleen een fraai kostuumstuk van te maken. Het moest een fris verhaal over levensechte mensen worden. Aan het originele materiaal zijn veel levendige details toegevoegd. Zoals de beroemde scène waarin Darcy na een spontane duik in het meer met drijfnatte kleren onverwacht de hem altijd in verwarring brengende Elizabeth tegenkomt. Beroofd van alle decorum probeert hij uit alle macht te doen alsof er niets aan de hand is, wat leidt tot een bizarre conversatie over onbenulligheden. Helaas zult u hiervoor nog tot deel vier geduld moeten oefenen.
Wel mogen we direct al genieten van de voortreffelijke Colin Firth als Mr. Darcy. Firth kreeg begin dit jaar een Oscar voor zijn rol als stotterende koning George VI.

Letter from Jane to Cassandra

Godmersham: Sunday (June 26).

MY DEAR CASSANDRA,

I am very much obliged to you for writing to me on Thursday, and very glad that I owe the pleasure of hearing from you again so soon to such an agreeable cause; but you will not be surprised, nor perhaps so angry as I should be, to find that Frank's history has reached me before in a letter from Henry. We are all very happy to hear of his health and safety; he wants nothing but a good prize to be a perfect character.

Read on: http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablet8.html

Summer 1804– Austens, with Henry and Eliza, visit Lyme Regis

There is a story handed down by members of Jane Austen's family that the author fell in love with a young man during one of her West Country holidays about the year1802. Her niece Caroline wrote of it in her old age having had it passed to her by Jane's sister Cassandra, although Caroline thought that perhaps the romance had happened in Devonshire, not Lyme. No names were recorded but the story goes that he returned Jane's affection and that he promised to meet her again. Sadly, it was not to be; the sisters heard later of his untimely death. I've often wondered if this young man inspired Persuasion and because Jane wrote so lovingly of Lyme, whether in fact her romance did take place in Lyme.

The Austens stayed in Lyme in 1803 and again in 1804, this time with Jane's brother Henry and his wife Eliza. The photograph above shows Pyne House on the left, where it is believed that Jane Austen stayed. The little house is on the main road down to the sea, on Broad Street, a short walk away from the promenade and the Cobb. The Austens were in Lyme for a September holiday and there is evidence to suggest that they stayed as late as November. Again, in Persuasion, Anne Elliot and the party from Uppercross visit Lyme in November and the description of Lyme - " After securing accommodations, and ordering a dinner at one of the inns, the next thing to be done was unquestionably to walk directly down to the sea. They were come too late in the year for any amusement or variety which Lyme as a public place, might offer. The rooms were shut up, the lodgers almost all gone, scarcely any family but of the residents left;" - suggests that Jane was writing from first-hand knowledge.

historicalromanceuk.blogspot.com

myaustendreamworld./lyme-regis

The sale of Ibthorpe House – home to her friends the Lloyds and where Jane Austen visited on a number of occasions.

A perfectly proportioned early Georgian Grade II* listed country house, with Carolean origins, set within beautiful garden and grounds. The property is well placed for good road and rail access as well as highly regarded schooling

Ibthorpe House, is a charming and beautiful Grade ll * listed early Georgian country house with Carolean origins and was originally owned by Corpus Christi College, Oxford. This is the first time Ibthorpe has been formally placed on the open market.

It is here that Jane Austen attended the wedding of her brother to Mary Lloyd and it is believed she based Longbourn, the Bennett’s house in Pride and Prejudice, on Ibthorpe.
janeausteninvermont
property-for-sale

This poem was written by her sister, Cassandra, to Jane

Love, they say, is like a rose;

I’m sure ’tis like the wind that blows,

For not a human creature knows

How it comes or where it goes.

It is the cause of many woes:

It swells the eyes and reds the nose,

And very often changes those

Who once were friends to bitter foes.

But let us now the scene transpose

And think no more of tears and throes.

Why may we not as well suppose

A smiling face the urchin shows?

And when with joy the bosom glows,

And when the heart has full repose,

‘Tis mutual love the gift bestows.

A great proficient of the pianoforte

Not the real piano, but they believe that Jane's piano looked like this one

But it is Austen, the famous literary figure of the Regency era, who has brought Baird to Perth. Under the title Jane Austen's Songbook, Baird will sing the music that Austen - a talented amateur musician - played for an hour each morning, virtually all her adult life. Austen's love for the piano was typical of her day. The new pianoforte was considered an essential, if expensive, item in middle and upper-class English homes. It triggered a proliferation of printed music and female musicianship: women could play and perform in the privacy of their own home.

"Jane must have been pretty accomplished because she was frequently asked to play while the others did regency dances," Baird says. "One of the most popular piano pieces of the era, The Battle of Prague by Frantisek Koczwara, . . . was considered the height of technique to which a young woman should aspire.

They had been found in Austen's beloved Berkshire home, Chawton Cottage: two volumes of piano music (one that she collected, one hand-copied), one copied songbook, bound books of favourite songs and music from her mother.

"When she was dying she developed a palsy in her hand that made her unable to write but not to play the piano. She was serious about her playing."
a-great-proficient-of-the-pianoforte

Thee en Jane Austen; de perfecte combinatie

Begin april verscheen bij Frances Lincoln Limited de tweede editie van het boek ‘Tea with Jane Austen’. Het boek is geschreven door de Amerikaanse Kim Wilson. Dit is het perfecte boek voor de ware theeleut en liefhebber van Jane Austen. Zittend in een comfortabele stoel met een geurend kopje thee naast je, voert het je langs de verschillende tijden van de dag waarop thee werd gedronken in Jane Austens tijd en krijg je water in je mond van de foto’s van alle lekkernijen die bij een kopje thee passen.

Het boek geeft een helder beeld van de geschiedenis, cultuur en gebruik van thee in de regency periode. De gebruikte foto’s zijn heel toepasselijk, er is veel aandacht besteed aan de vormgeving. Tevens worden regelmatig passages geciteerd uit Jane’s boeken en haar brieven die betrekking hebben op het drinken van thee. Ook komen haar tijdgenoten aan bod. En voor de keukenprinsen c.q. -prinsessen onder ons: er staan genoeg historische recepten in het boek die het mogelijk maken de regency thee cultuur letterlijk en figuurlijk te “proeven”.

Lees meer:  www.janeausten.nl

William Deresiewicz, the author of A Jane Austen Education

William Deresiewicz, the author of A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me about Love, Friendship, and the Things that Really Matter answered some of our pressing questions on life, love and how he made some tough decisions on writing about people in his life in his memoir. Read what he thinks about the role of community in our lives and whether or not he really would have found love without Jane Austen's help.
interview-william-deresiewicz-jane-austen

Austen' portrait album to be auctioned

8 June 2011
An album containing a portrait believed to be one of only four surviving of author Jane Austen, is going under the auctioneer's hammer.
The book, owned by Kent sculptor Simon Wheeler, was found by his father in a bookshop in Canterbury in the 1950s.
It contains 47 watercolours and drawings by James Stanier Clarke, librarian to the Prince Regent, who is known to have met Austen in 1815.
The book is expected to fetch between £30,000 and £50,000 at Christie's.
Clarke met Austen when he showed her round the Prince Regent's London home, Carlton House on 13 November 1815
Mr Wheeler's father Richard studied the portrait in the album and became convinced it was the author of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.
"He used to revel in the fact that he was just casually looking through a bookshop and stumbled across this item," Simon Wheeler said.
"He realised it was interesting but he didn't know what it was so he was just keen to buy it, investigate it and read it for his own interest."
Christie's expert Thomas Fenning said analysis of the facial features had been carried out by experts.
"There are computer facial efits comparing the features of this portrait, the two that are accepted, and the third one that is also one of the close runners and they fit," he said.
The Jane Austen Centre in Bath believes that it is "unquestionably" Austen, though it is not verified by the National Portrait Gallery, which houses a portrait painted by her sister Cassandra.
The book, being sold on Wednesday, also contains other portraits, landscapes and maritime scenes.
www.bbc./news

http://kleurrijkjaneausten.blogspot.com/2010/04/following-is-substantial-extract-from.html

Helen Maria Williams

Helen Maria Williams, A Narrative of the Events which have taken place in France with an Account of the Present State of Society and Public Opinion. 2nd Edition. London: Printed for John Murray, Albemarle-Street. 1816.

Jane Austen borrowed the first edition of this book from her publisher, John Murray, while staying in London with her brother Henry, writing to Cassandra:

 “He [John Murray] has lent us Miss Williams & Scott, & says that any book of his will always be at my service” (24 November 1815).

Her reading of this work suggests an interest in contemporary politics and recent foreign history, with which she is rarely credited. Following James Edward’s statement that “the politics of the day occupied very little of her attention” (Memoir 78), for many years critics considered Austen to be an entirely apolitical writer, with little or no interest in contemporary current events. However, more recent scholarly work has reassessed this early view. Austen’s reading of the Narrative of the Events which have lately taken place in France demonstrates the breadth of her reading, and mention of Scott and Williams in the same breath shows her willingness to read books by those with widely differing political views. Helen Maria Williams was a notorious political radical, an “unsex’d female” in Richard Polwhele’s 1798 poem of the same name, in which he warns women readers in particular away from “Gallic Freaks” such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Williams.

Catalogue of the library at Godmersham Park

This manuscript catalogue of the library at Godmersham Park, the main residence of Austen’s brother Edward, was presumably started in 1818, the date embossed on the cover. However, there are books listed that were published as late as the early 1840s, so clearly the catalogue was maintained and updated over a number of years. The library would have been built up by succeeding generations; Edward inherited it together with the property, but clearly he continued to acquire new works for the collection. Jane Austen made extended visits to her brother and his family at Godmersham, and she certainly knew the library; on one such visit, she wrote:

The Comfort of the Billiard Table here is very great.—It draws all the Gentlemen to it whenever they are within, especially after dinner, so that my Br Fanny & I have the Library to ourselves in delightful quiet. (14-15 October 1813)

The library was clearly central to life at Godmersham; earlier that year, she told Cassandra that

“we live in the Library except at Meals” (23-24 September 1813).

The library includes books in several languages as well as English. There are texts (usually in the original Greek or Latin) by classical Greek and Roman writers and philosophers, as would befit a gentleman’s library at this time, including works by Plutarch, Plato, Homer, Sophocles, Epictetus, Euripides, Horace, Virgil, and Ovid. There are a substantial number of French books (including works by major figures in eighteenth-century French philosophy, such as Voltaire and Rousseau, and classic works of French fiction such as Gil-Blas), several books in Italian, and at least one in German.

In terms of the subjects included, much of what is in the Godmersham library probably reflects the interests of many such country house libraries at the time. There are books on travel (not just around Britain and Europe but also much further afield, including journeys to Egypt, Syria, Africa, North America, and India); history books (mainly English history but there are also histories of Europe more generally, and of specific countries or regions such as Greece, Russia, and the Ottoman empire); many works on religion, including books of common prayer, several seventeenth-century bibles, and a significant number of collections of sermons by various authors; examples of conduct literature, such as works by Jane West, Hester Chapone, and Hannah More; books about architecture and painting; parliamentary records (more than one owner of Godmersham Park was an MP); works on science and medicine; dictionaries (including two editions of Samuel Johnson’s) and works on grammar (not just English but also Greek); and a selection of periodicals, such as a 1758-1791 run of The Annual Register. Unsurprisingly, given that this is the library of landed gentry, there are books on farming, agriculture, and horsemanship, as well as gardening and landscape, and there are also a number of books on Kent and the local area. A glimpse into Godmersham leisure pursuits is offered by A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist (by Edmund Hoyle, 1746), and Chess Analysed (F. D. Philidor, 1773).

In terms of literature, as one would expect, there are works by many of the major figures, including Shakespeare (three editions of the complete works), Milton, Dryden, and Pope. There are also a significant number of novels in the library: Austen’s favorite, according to her family, Samuel Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison (1810 edition); Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749); Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (1760), and Jonathan Swift’s Travels . . . by Lemuel Gulliver (1726).


Read more: http://www.jasna.org/Jane Austen’s Reading

Jane Austen’s Reading

Caroline Austen documents Austen’s appreciation of the importance of reading, recalling her aunt’s advice to “cease writing till I was 16” and her statement “that she had herself often wished she had read more, and written less in the corresponding years of her own life” (qtd. in Le Faye, Family Record 239).  Despite her desire to have “read more” in her youth, recent scholarship has established that the range of Austen’s reading was far wider and deeper than either Henry or James Edward suggest.  Isobel Grundy makes the point that Austen read like a potential author from a very early age, looking for what she could use, “not by quietly absorbing and reflecting it, but by actively engaging, rewriting, often mocking it” (190).  Austen did not, as far as is known, make a list of her reading, but her letters and novels refer, either directly or allusively, to a wide variety of texts.  As Jocelyn Harris argues, Austen’s excellent memory stood her in good stead when it came to employing her reading (Art of Memory

She knew poetry by Milton, George Crabbe, Robert Burns, Thomas Campbell, Wordsworth, and Byron, and the sermons of Hugh Blair, Thomas Sherlock, and Edward Cooper.  She mentions conduct literature by Thomas Gisborne, James Fordyce, Jane West, and Hannah More, and plays by Shakespeare, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, John Home, Richard Cumberland, George Colman, Hannah Cowley, Susanna Centlivre, and Elizabeth Inchbald.  She read political history by Thomas Clarkson, historian of the slave trade, and Charles Pasley, historian of the government of India, travelogues by Joseph Baretti and Lord Macartney, and the correspondence of Hester Thrale Piozzi and Dr. Johnson.  She knew works by the French authors Stéphanie Félicité de Genlis, Arnaud Berquin, and Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, and the Germans, Johann von Goethe and August von Kotzebue.  She read the efforts of relations and acquaintances such as Cassandra Cooke and Egerton Brydges, and the nascent novels of her nieces and nephew.

The snippets from Austen’s letters remind us that books were relatively expensive luxury items, often bought by circulating libraries or private reading societies and circulated among the members or subscribers. Jane Austen got hold of books in many different ways—reading them in her father’s library at Steventon and her brother’s Godmersham library, borrowing from circulating libraries in Bath and Southampton, joining the Chawton Reading Society, and borrowing the latest publications from her publisher—but she rarely bought books. Those bought during her youth were sold with her father’s before the move to Bath in 1801, and presumably regularly purchasing books was quite simply outside the limited means of the Austen ladies’ household during their years in Bath, Southampton, and Chawton.

Anne Sharp, “my dearest Anne”.

Anne Sharp served as governess to Fanny Knight (1793-1882) Jane Austen’s niece, at Godmersham from 1804 to 1806, resigning for health reasons.  She is mentioned fondly several times in Jane Austen’s letters to her sister Cassandra.

None of Edward’s (Austen Knight) many in-laws and their neighbors seem to have become her (Jane) regular correspondent; instead, the closet friend she made in Kent was a Godmersham employee, the governess Anne Sharp. In Miss Sharp she found a truly compatible spirit. She was delicate in health, clever, keen on acting and quick enough with her pen to write a play for the children to perform; it was called Pride Punished or Innocence Rewarded, and was put on, although only to amuse the servants. And she was obliged to earn her bread by the only possible means, the hard labour of teaching. Jane took to her at once, and formed a lasting friendship with her; and although Anne Sharp left Godmersham in 1806, and worked mostly in the north of England afterwards, the two women kept up a regular correspondence.

Miss Sharp became “my dearest Anne”. In 1809, feeling rather “languid and solitary” a Godmersham, Jane could not help recalling a much more animated time when Miss Sharp had been present. Jane worried about her circumstances, and invited her to stay more than once; and she did manage to get her to Hampshire at least once, in the summer of 1815.

She sent her copies of her books and cared for her opinion of them, some of which we know: Pride and Prejudice the favorite, Mansfield Park excellent, Emma somewhere between. Jane worried about her as she might about a sister. On one occasion she was concerned enough for her to express the desperate romantic wish that one of her employers, the widower Sir Wm. P. of Yorkshire, would fall in love with his children’s governess: “I do so want him to marry her! …. Oh! Sir Wm – Sir Wm – how I will love you, if you will love Miss Sharp!” Sir William, needless to say, did not oblige; neither he nor Miss Sharp were figures of romance, and it would take a later novelist to marry a working governess to her employer.

It was Jane, not anyone at Godmersham, who wrote to Miss Sharp to inform her when her erstwhile employer, Elizabeth Austen (wife of brother Edward), died. Jane wrote one of her last letters to her dearest Anne; and after Jane’s death, Cassandra felt it right to send Miss Sharp – as she still called her – a lock of her sister’s hair and a few mementoes. The modest nature of the gifts underlines the poverty and thrift all three women took for granted: one was a bodkin that had been in Jane’s sewing kit for twenty years. It was no doubt treasured for another thirty. Miss Sharp lived into the 1850′s…It seems that in Kent, Jane found a semblable and made her into one of her very close friends; someone who was neither rich nor particularly happy, but who was entirely congenial. What’s more, she was not shared with the family; she was entirely her own friend. That she was also a working woman who was later to set up and run her own boarding school in Doncaster suggests a good deal about what interested and attracted Jane Austen.
From: Claire Tomalin’s biography of Jane Austen.

In 1814, Miss Sharp was employed by the widow Lady Pilkington of Chevet Park, near Wakefield, Yorkshire as governess to her four daughters Eliza, Anne, Louisa and Catherine.


It is thought that Jane Austen drew from Miss Sharp’s experiences in the profession and included them in her novel Emma in the characters of Mrs. Weston and Jane Fairfax. Both of these two characters find love and marriage by the end of the novel, but that was not to be for Miss Sharp who never married, established a boarding school for girls in Everton near Liverpool, and died there in 1853.

After Jane Austen’s death the following July, her sister Cassandra sent Miss Sharp a lock of Jane Austen’s hair and some small tokens as a memento of her dear friend whose memory would now have to sustain their relationship.
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Lot No: 107•

AUSTEN (JANE)

Emma, 3 vol., FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY TO ANNE SHARP, inscribed "From the author" by the publisher (on fly-leaf of volume one), and with the signature of Anne Sharp (on the fly-leaf of each volume), half-titles, occasional mainly light foxing and staining, a few corners creased, one or two minor paper flaws, contemporary half calf, gilt panelled spines, rubbed, one or two joints cracked [Gilson A8; Keynes 8; Sadleir 62d], 8vo, John Murray, 1816

Sold for £180,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Auction Emma

A reticule was a small handbag

A reticule was a small handbag that could be hung from the wrist to be used in much the same manner as an evening bag is today. It might also be called an indispensable. The reticule became an indispensable accessory because the line of the newly fashionable high-waisted Empire gowns would be interrupted by any object lodged in a pocket. In December 1801, Katherine Wilmot, an Irish woman on Grand Tour visiting Paris, described reticules as like a "little workbag." (Read her description of the French fashions on page 15 and of reticules on page 16 in Elizabeth Mavor's book The Grand Tours of Katherine Wilmot.) The bag might be knitted, made of rich cloth with a gold chain and closure, or derived from such items as shells. Netting reticules and covering screens were considered suitable pastimes for young ladies. The term purse during the Regency would only be used to describe a very small leather bag for carrying moneys as in a change purse today. A reticule might contain a fine linen handkerchief, a calling card case filled with the Lady's card, a small purse for tips, a vinaigrette, the Lady's seal, a tablet and pencil in a small case, and a tin of breath mints. Each case was probably housed in a small velvet bag to prevent scratches.

"I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like."

Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like."

In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich."

Emma, however, is also rather spoiled; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; and she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives and is often mistaken about the meanings of others' actions.
http://www.austen.com/emma/
http://www.strangegirl.com/emma/
 
By this stage Jane Austen knew what she was doing as a writer. She had mastered her craft. She knew she could write. She had also been very productive and may have been feeling a little burnt out. She may have needed the time to grow her new ideas. Is this what was happening in this long period of apparent silence? We can bet her mind was not silent, nor without new ideas forming.

There is a lot of be said for writing everyday – it keeps that side of you alive and creates a habit, but for a writer already as skilled as Jane Austen, it may not have been necessary. She had the necessary focus through long previous practice and instead of writing feverishly, she could allow ideas to gestate. This is such an important part of the process. Writing fiction is not just about writing stuff down. It is about story development and world building and deep characterization. Now, you can write all that down, but you can also hold it in your head and your heart and work it over and over again there. For a woman like Jane Austen this would have been a very real possibility and perhaps a necessity. Although there is some evidence she was excused some household duties to allow her to write, there were still daily obligations to be met – a certain amount of sewing for example. She was also a diligent pianist.

When the Austens did return to the country, to Chawton, Austen began to produce again in earnest. What she did produce was a succession of masterpieces. Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion rank as some of the finest novels ever written in English. So the long gap, which may have been painful for her and frustrating at times, was also fertile. Novels as perfect as Emma do not arrive fully formed. They have to grow and evolve in the mind of the writer. This is what I think must have happened with Jane Austen.

The comfort we can draw from this is we should not always be afraid that we have not filled the blank page with words. Sometimes the words are not ready to come. Sometimes we do not have the space or the time in our lives to let them come. But we always have our minds and we can write in our heads no matter where we are or what we are doing. The long gap can be turned to our advantage.
harriet smart

Publication History of Jane Austen's Novels and Stories

Jane Austen's writing career can be divided into three distinct phases: her early childhood and writing years in Steventon Rectory (1775 - 1801); her young adulthood in Bath (1801-1806) and Southampton and Godmersham (1805-1808), a time in which she was the least productive; and her mature writing years in Chawton Cottage (1809 – 1817). During her lifetime, her books were published anonymously by “a lady.”

 

A photograph of all that remains of Steventon Rectory, which was razed in 1820 shortly after Jane’s death: A field with trees and a metal pump in an enclosure.

History of England 

The Juvenilia (Begun ca. 1787 in Steventon Rectory)

Jane Austen wrote short pieces between 1787 – 1793 in a collection known as the Juvenilia. Included are Jane Austen History of England and Love and Freindship (her spelling). Over her lifetime she frequently copied these early stories, histories, and plays into numerous 3-volume notebooks that were distributed to family members.In 1922, Volume the Second of the Juvenilia was first printed. Robert William Chapman then printed his edition of Volume the Second in 1933, and all three volumes in 1954 as Jane's Minor Works.

Northanger Abbey (Begun 1793 in Steventon Rectory)
After Jane's death, her brother, Henry, recalled that she decided to write professionally in 1789. Between 1793 and 94 she began the first draft of a novel entitled Susan. The book, a parody of the gothic novel, was written in 1798-1799. It was offered for publication in 1803 and purchased for £10 by Crosby and Company. The firm allowed the manuscript to languish on its shelves for six years. In 1809, Jane
Austen unsuccessfully tried to get the manuscript back from the publisher, but she did not have enough money to repurchase it. Henry finally bought it back from the publisher in 1816, or 13 years after it was first published. Jane renamed the book, Catherine, since a book entitled Susan had already been published. After Jane's death in 1817, Henry retitled the book to Northanger Abbey and published it along with Persuasion.

Lady Susan (Begun ca. 1794 in Steventon Rectory)
Jane began Lady Susan, an epistolary novel about a beautiful, selfish widow, around 1794. In 1803, while living in Bath, she completed the work and laid it aside, never attempting to publish it. Her nephew James Edward Austen included the manuscript in the Memoir of Jane Austen in 1871, when it was first read by the public.

Sense and Sensibility (Begun 1795 in Steventon Rectory)
Jane Austen wrote the first version of this novel, known as Elinor and Marianne, in an epistolary form. In November 1797, she renamed the book Sense and Sensibility and edited it into its current format. After moving to Chawton, she rewrote the novel in preparation for its publication. The novel was published in three volumes in November 1811 by Thomas Edgerton. Jane paid for the book's publication and made a profit of £140 (minus Edgerton's commission) on the first edition of 750 printed copies, which all sold. In October 1813, a second edition of Sense and Sensibility came out. Jane earned a total of £250 in profits from the book, a minor success.

Pride and Prejudice, (Begun 1796 in Steventon Rectory)
Jane Austen's most famous novel was written between October 1796 - August 1797 as a thick 3-volume tome known as First impressions. The manuscript was immensely popular among Jane's family and friends, prompting Jane's father, Rev. George Austen, to write a letter in 1797 to Thomas Cadell, a publisher in London, to inquire if he would be willing to publish it. Cadell declined the letter by 'return of post.' The family continued to enjoy reading Jane's novel throughout the years.

In 1812, Jane revised the book, now named Pride and Prejudice, and reduced its length considerably. Thomas Edgerton published the novel in three volumes in January 1813. He purchased the copyright of the book outright for £110, which meant that Jane made no profit off the second edition, published in 1813.

The Watsons (Begun ca. 1803 in Bath)
The years living in Bath were not kind to Jane's literary output. During this time, she started The Watson, and it remained a mere fragment, even though she worked hard on it from 1804 to 1807. Jane's nephew, J.E. Austen-Leigh, published her unfinished manuscript posthumously in the Memoir of Jane Austen in 1871.

Mansfield Park (Begun 1811 in Chawton Cottage)
Jane Austen worked on Mansfield Park between 1811 and 1813. Published by Edgerton in May 1814, the novel sold out in six months. A second edition of Mansfield Park, which came out in 1816,did not sell well and negated the profits Jane made from Emma.

Emma (Begun 1814 in Chawton Cottage)
Jane wrote Emma, a novel about a heroine “whom no-one but myself will much like”, between 1814 and 1815. She visited her brother Henry in London to ready it for publication. Through his librarian, Rev. John Stanier Clark, the Prince Regent invited her to visit his library in Carlton House. The novel was published in December 1815 by a new publisher, John Murray, who was also Byron's publisher. He printed 2,000 copies of the book, but due to the failure of the second edition of Mansfield Park, also published by Murray, Jane received approximately £39 in total for the book. She (very reluctantly) dedicated Emma to the Prince Regent.

John Murray

Persuasion (Begun 1815 in Chawton Cottage)
When Jane began a new novel in the summer of 1815, she named it The Elliots. In March of 1816, she described it in a letter as "something ready for publication". While writing the novel, Jane fell ill with the disease that would eventually kill her, and after August of 1816, she stopped working on it.
Jane replaced her first version of the last two chapters of The Elliots with a newer, more successful ending. The book was published posthumously in December 1817 with the new ending, and renamed Persuasion. In his biographical note after her death, her brother Henry identified Jane publicly for the first time as the author of her first four published novels.

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Henry Austen

This is a draft of a letter from Henry Austen to John Murray on his sister’s behalf and it gives us the rare direct glimpse into the wit of Henry Austen. Jane Austen is in Town and working on negotiations with John Murray for the publication of Emma.
Henry’s very serious illness prompted Austen to call all her family members to his bedside, and it was not until a few weeks later that Austen herself takes on the writing of letters to Murray to complete the Emma negotiations – she writes requesting him to call on her in Hans Place because “a short conversation may perhaps do more than much Writing.” [Ltr. 124, Nov. 3, 1815; To John Murray]
[Henry's Draft letter in Austen's hand is in the Bodleian Library; a facsimile is in Modert, F-361 and F-362]

[A Letter to Mr. Murray which Henry dictated a few days after his Illness began, & just before the severe Relapse which threw him into such Danger. - ]
Dear Sir,

Severe illness has confined me to my Bed ever since I received Yours of ye 15th – I cannot yet hold a pen, & employ an Amuensis – The Politeness & Perspicuity of your Letter equally claim my earliest Exertion. – Your official opinion of the Merits of Emma, is very valuable & satisfactory. – Though I venture to differ occasionally from your Critique, yet I assure you the Quantum of your commendation rather exceeds than falls short of the Author’s expectation & my own. – The Terms you offer are so very inferior to what we had expected, that I am apprehensive of having made some great Error in my Arithmetical Calculation. – On the subject of the expense & profit of publishing, you must be much better informed that I am; – but Documents in my possession appear to prove that the Sum offered by you, for the Copyright of Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park & Emma, is not equal to the Money which my Sister has actually cleared by one very moderate Edition of Mansfield Park –(You Yourself expressed astonishment that so small an Edit. of such a work should have been sent into the World) & a still smaller one of Sense & Sensibility…
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Sanditon (Begun 1817 in Chawton Cottage)
Between January and March 1817, Jane Austen worked on the first draft of Sanditon, her last novel. In 1871, her nephew Edward recalled that she “continued to work at it as long as she could work at all.” Soon she felt too ill to continue, and Jane laid the novel aside, unfinished. The fragment was published in 1871 as The Last Work in Edward Austen Leigh's, A Memoir of Jane Austen.
A+Memoir+of+Jane+Austen

Jane Austen died in Winchester on July 18, 1817. She had lived long enough to see four novels published. Less than half a year after her death, John Murray published Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Her six novels earned around £1,625 through 1832, including the income received from the two posthumous novels, a quite modest sum. Her novels have been continuously in print since Richard Bentley published a collection of her works in 1833.

Hoeveel verdiende Jane Austen?

Jane Austen publiceerde haar boeken in eigen beheer. Dat betekent dat ze zelf betaalde voor het drukwerk en dat de uitgever een commissie kreeg voor het verspreiden en het verzorgen van publiciteit.

Uitzondering op deze werkwijze was Pride and Prejudice. Van dat boek verkocht Jane haar copyright voor 110 pond. Het boek werd een succes en leverde haar uitgever een flinke winst op.

Jane Austen verkocht in 1803 haar manuscript ‘Susan’ aan een uitgever voor 10 pond.
Voor het boek verschenen wel advertenties, maar de uitgever heeft verder niets met het manuscript gedaan. In 1809 schreef Jane een boze brief aan de uitgever met de vraag waar het boek bleef. Voor deze brief verzon ze een pseudoniem, Mrs. Ashton Dennis, met als enig doel de brief te kunnen ondertekenen met MAD (‘kwaad’). Ze kreeg als antwoord dat het boek niet uitgegeven zou gaan worden en dat ze het manuscript voor 10 pond terug kon kopen. In 1816 kocht Jane’s broer Henry-Thomas het terug en werkte Jane het om tot ‘Northanger Abbey’.

Haar eerste gepubliceerde boek was ‘Sense and Sensibility, op 30 oktober 1811. Haar broer Henry fungeerde als haar ‘literaire agent’: hij zorgde voor contacten met de uitgever. Jane Austen publiceerde anoniem: Bij Sense and Sensibility stond er alleen op dat het door ‘A Lady’ geschreven was. Dat vrouwen boeken schreven, werd in die tijd bepaald niet gewaardeerd. Men vond dat het vrouwen ontbrak aan opleiding en smaak om te kunnen schrijven. Om schande te voorkomen, publiceerden vrouwen daarom vaak anoniem hun werk.
Pride and Prejudice’ werd uitgegeven op 28 januari 1813. Opnieuw anoniem: ‘From the author of Sense and Sensibility’.

Van 1811 tot 1813 schreef Jane Austen ‘Mansfield Park’. Mansfield Park’ werd op 9 mei 1814 gepubliceerd. De eerste oplage van ‘Mansfield Park’ bestond waarschijnlijk uit 1250 exemplaren. Deze waren binnen zes maanden uitverkocht. Toch kreeg de roman geen enkele recensie. Daarom verzamelde Jane zelf alle opmerkingen die vrienden, kennissen en familie over Mansfield Park maakten.
Mansfield Park werd lauw ontvangen. De meest gehoorde opmerking was dat het ’geen Pride and Prejudice’ was. Uitgever Egerton weigerde een tweede editie van Mansfield Park uit te brengen.

Van 21 januari 1814 tot 29 maart 1815 schreef Jane Austen ‘Emma’.Omdat ze haar nieuwste boek niet meer door Egerton wilde laten uitgeven, ging ze op zoek naar een nieuwe uitgever. Ze kwam terecht bij de uitgever van Lord Byron, John Murray. Deze bood 450 pond voor ‘Emma’, maar dan wilde hij ook het copyright voor Mansfield Park en Sense and Sensibility erbij.

John Murray

Omdat haar broer en zakenwaarnemer Henry ziek was, ging Jane zelf met Murray in onderhandeling. Ze besloot Emma en een tweede editie van Mansfield Park in eigen beheer uit te geven.

De tweede editie van Mansfield Park verkocht zo slecht, dat Jane er ruim 180 pond verlies op leed.
Voor de verkoop van Emma ontving ze 220 pond. Dat betekende dat ze aan meer dan twee jaar werk nog geen 40 pond overhield.

Gedurende haar leven heeft Jane Austen 631 pond met haar boeken verdiend. Ook in die tijd was dit geen vetpot. Ter vergelijking: Jane Austen gaf per jaar 20 pond uit aan kleding.
In 1832 verkocht zus Cassandra de copyrights van Jane’s boeken. De totaalsom voor wat de Austens (inclusief Jane) met haar boeken hebben verdiend, kwam daarmee op 1625 pond.

Cassandra

Cassandra fell in love with Thomas Fowle in 1794 when she was 21 years old and they became engaged. Thomas became a chaplain with the military and was sent to the Caribbean on a mission to earn an income to be able to marry Cassandra. Utterly devastating Cassandra, Thomas Fowle died in 1797 in San Domingo in the West Indies from yellow fever. She inherited a sum of £1000 (around £50 a year) from his death but she never married.

When her Sister Jane died Cassandra said:

She was the sun of my life….I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself” (Letter, July 20th 1817).

Cassandra Austen in later life

After Jane’s death, Cassandra made it her duty to ensure that the last of her sister’s works made print; she organised the two remaining novels, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, to be published. Cassandra lived the rest of her days alone in Chawton Cottage until her death on 22nd March 1845. She was 72 years old. She is buried at St Nicolas church in Chawton with her mother (who died in 1827).

This medallion illustration in ink and watercolor on paper was executed by Cassandra Austen,   for Jane's The History of England.

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Cassandra Elizabeth Austen: protector or vandal of Jane Austen's legacy


read: http://www.jasa.net.au/japeople/sister.htm
 
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Cassandra-Austen-oil-paintings

SPINSTER, Why Jane Austen Never Married

What was also new, what gave her pride and pleasure, was the growing assertiveness of Englishwomen, who were starting their own quiet English Revolution. Intuitively, Austen had rejected Harris Bigg-Wither’s marriage proposal because she had always received enough emotional support from the company of other women, particularly her sister Cassandra, but also her mother and her friends. This gave her a freedom that was (or is) never understood or appreciated by those who turn up their noses at sisterhood and spinsterhood. This new freedom gave her the privacy she needed to write and it was her writing that gave her the emotional expression she felt she needed. Who needs a husband for that? If she were married she would be expected to run a household, bear a dozen children and then raise them. She would have no privacy, no time to write and without a doubt no imagination left. It would have destroyed her. Because her father was a clergyman she had been luckier than most in having the advantages of a library, an important factor when women were otherwise disadvantaged by being prevented from studying at university, but it was the company of women that gave her a diverse group of characters on whom she could test her storylines and from whom she could derive a steady supply of raw material.

Read more, interesting article about this question: sexual fables spinster