Jane Austen and the art of letter writing

Janes father owned an extensive library, and Austen was an avid reader. But in genteel families such as hers letter writing skills were usually handed down within the family.

Jane is believed to have written some 3,000 letters, only about 160 of which have survived, most of them addressed to Cassandra.

Cassandra wasn’t the only one she corresponded with. There are letters to her brothers, to friends, to her nieces and nephews as well as to her publishers and some of her literary admirers, with whom she slowly developed a slightly more intimate relationship. There is even a letter to Charles Haden, the handsome apothecary who she is believed to have been in love with. Her unusual ending, “Good bye”, suggests a kind of flirting on paper. The language of the letters shows how she varied her style depending on who she was writing to. She would use the word fun, considered a “low” word at the time, only to the younger generation of Austens. Jane Austen loved linguistic jokes, as shown by the reverse letter to her niece Cassandra Esten: “Ym raed Yssac, I hsiw uoy a yppah wen raey”, and she recorded her little nephew George’s inability to pronounce his own name: “I flatter myself that itty Dordy will not forget me at least under a week”. Read all: oxforddictionaries

Peering into the past

Something that can be overlooked in a museum is the history of the museum itself. As a "House Museum" part of our story is told through the bricks and mortar, but naturally the focus of our attention is on the house as it would have been at the time Jane Austen lived here (1809-17) and to a lesser degree beyond those years to 1845 when Jane's sister Cassandra died and the cottage was no longer the home of the Austen ladies.

 

The photograph above shows the drawing-room in the 1950s and features Mr Austen's Bureau, the Clementi Piano, the chaise longue (which was found in the attic) and a portrait of two of Francis Austen's children, Mary-Jane and George. The mirror above the bureau is one that was owned by the Austen family and is currently in need of conservation. The other frame contains fragments of the wallpaper which was discovered when shelving was removed from the area of the window at the front of the house that was blocked off in 1809. If you look closely it is possible to see that the floor has neither floorboards nor carpet. Although the Austens would have had rugs, this room had a flagstone floor and although the ladies would have spent their evenings in this room it certainly was not a grand room. Floorboards were not installed until 1983.

 

The House first opened as a Museum in 1949; at the time some tenants were still living in parts of the house. The Museum has grown and been developed over the years. It was only in 2009 that a separate entrance to the Museum was created, rather than visitors paying on arrival in the drawing-room, and we were able for the first time to open the kitchen to the public, bringing the majority of the House into the visitor experience. (We do still have a few corners where we have tucked offices away, but generally our visitors are able to see the whole house). Read more: jane-austens-house-museum

Jane Austen movie costume as worn by HayleyAtwell for Mansfield Park.

 

Rose ‏@thelifeof_rose 28 aug.                       

Lovely Jane Austen movie costume as worn by @HayleyAtwell for Mansfield Park.