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Life of Jane Austen ^c A jO>' ^i:?]JJNYSUl-- /v Ya- ] t » aii lit trr%n EDITED BY PROFESSOR ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A. LIFE OF JANE AUSTEN. LIFE OF JANE AUSTEN. BY A-^ — ^ GOLDWIN SMITH. \ , D LONDON WALTER SCOTT, 24, WARWICK LANE 1890 (AH rights reserved.) ^2-g O TfL 6^/ . X^ CONTENTS. -- CHAPTER I. in December Jnne Austen's position literary history ; born, i6, the Austen 1775, at the Parsonage, Steventon ; family ; Steventon and its society the basis of Jane Austen's and tastes childish works ; her early days literary ; pro- ductions; a precocious genius; "Pride and Prejudice" " " and " (1796), Sense and Sensibility (1797), Northanger Abbey" (1798), written at Steventon; rejected by the in her work and in her home life publishers ; delight pre- she moves with her father to vents discouragement ; P)ath, father removal to iSoi ; her dies, 1805 ; consequent considers herself an old maid views Southampton ; ; near thereon and on dress ; removal to Chawton, Win- " " chester, 1809; "Emma," Mansfield Park," and Per- " at of suasion written Chawton ; anonymous publication the novels, 1811-18; Jane Austen and Madame de the novels Sir Walter Stael ; appreciated by Scott, also the Prince and other leading men ; by Regent ; librarian illness officiousness of the Prince Regent's ; ; her of removal to Winchester ; death, July 18, 1817; view of her letters a foe to a life ; the tone ; sentimentality ; lover of nature ; a mild Conservative ; her novels accu- social life of the time her views rately depict the ; on her moral wealth ; religion ; the clergy ; teaching ; the CONTENTS. PAGE but novels not didactic, nor propngandist, very human ; country life as depicted in her novels compared with that the novels of unromantic their cha- of to-day ; necessity ; —the racters taken from a limited class gentry ; her work narrow in compass, but perfect in detail . .11 CHAPTER II. " " Pride and Prejudice perhaps the best of Jane Austen's and families the of the novels ; the Bennet Darcy ; plot of characters and self- novel ; discussion ; Darcy's pride the of the love somewhat overdone ; solemn priggishness Rev. Mr. Collins—his proposal to Elizabeth, his letter of Bennet's humour and condolence to Mr. Bennet ; Mr. dry aristocratic insolence of Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity ; Lady Charlotte Lucas's view of Catherine de Bourgh ; practical 66 matrimony as a provision for young women CHAPTER III. " Sense and Sensibility" constructed on somewhat similar lines to "Pride and Prejudice," but inferior to it; the chief " " characters—their counterparts in Pride and Prejudice ; of the rehabilitation rather epitome plot ; Willoughby's the minor characters the a strange incident ; ; good- Sir Middleton natured vulgarity of Mi's. Jennings ; John the modern half way between the old country squire and the cold-hearted selfishness of country gentleman ; Lady the Misses Middleton and Mrs. John Dashwood ; Steele, and in soul Mrs. Da'^hwood vulgar both in manners ; John the of children . 89 on annuities ; pleasantries spoilt CHAPTER IV. " " of Northanger Abbey "—a comic travesty of the Mysteries " of Radcliffc Catherine Morland's original Udolplio Mrs. ; CONTENTS. 7 PAGR for heroine of she disqualifications a romance ; gradually to meets there the and the qualifies ; goes Bath ; Thorpes a Tilneys ; description of them ; General Tilney ; wrongly understanding Catherine to be an heiress, he invites her to her for Northanger Abbey ; Heniy Tilney prepares first romantic horrors ; the night at the Abbey ; other a adventures ; General Tilney bent on match between Catherine she is not an he and Henry ; finding heiress, but all ends . I02 suddenly orders Catherine home ; happily CHAPTER V. "Emma"; a description of her; the relations between the characteristics principal characters ; of Emma Woodhouse the of the novel Bra- and Mr. Knightley ; plot ; Lord unfavourable of " bourne's view Mr. Knightley ; Emma" rich in character ; Mr. Woodhouse's benevolent valetudi- narianism a little overdrawn ; Mr. Elton, the clerical and his wife Miss the Adonis, vulgar, conceited ; Bates, worthy old maid Il8 CHAPTER VI. Mansfield Park ;" it teems with delicate touches of character of of the of and fine strokes art ; an account plot and the characters the characters the principal ; subordinate ; mean Mrs. Norris the of and despicable ; indolence and apathy Bertram somewhat her fault- Lady exaggerated ; passive lessness the unmethodical and ; slatternly Mrs. Price well realistic of the drawn ; description Price household ; Admiral Crawford and Lieutenant Price ; the comic and bad characters of the novels generic, but some of the better ones William very likely portraits ; Price probably CONTENTS. PAGE of represents one Jane Austen's sailor brothers ; a tribute to the navy 140 CHAPTER VII. " " — last Persuasion ^Jane Austen's work ; its autumnal mellow- ness of tone and sentiment ; not so well constructed as her other novels, but contains some of her finest touches ; Anne Elliot perhaps the most interesting of Jane Austen's the and women ; plot principal characters discussed ; minor characters the ; family pride and self-conceit of Sir Elliot W. slightly overdone ; Elizabeth Elliott's selfish- ness Elliot's — ; Mary querulous and hypocritical self-love letter to her Anne ; Admiral Croft, a sketch from life ; in construction of weakness the plot ; several more or less aimless characters 167 CHAPTER VIII. '* Fragments : Lady Susan," probably an exercise never in- for its in tended publication ; plot ; composed the form of a series of letters defects of that of ; style composition ; " " The Watsons the circumstances in it ; which was begun left unfinished or and ; only one two of its characters faintly reproduced in other novels 181 CHAPTER IX. Jane Austen's novels regarded as a whole : no hidden meanings in she or philosophy them ; only made the familiar and commonplace interesting and amusing; their style the same throughout; the plots generally well -sustained, though unsensational the heroines ; more interesting and better drawn than the heroes, but the secondary characters the best Austen's ; Jane narrow range of observation caused partial recurrences of characters and incidents, but Lord CONTENTS. 9 PAGE character is distinct Mrxaulay claims that each ; though has her subjects were commonplace and tri\nal, her genius made them bright for ever ...... 185 NOTE. Jane Austen's chronological relation to the other English nove- lists 19: INDEX 193 LIFE OF JANE AUSTEN. CHAPTER I. AUSTEN stands in literary history as one of MISSa group of female novelists of manners, of which the other most prominent figures are Miss Burney, Miss Edgeworth, and Miss Ferrier, while the whole group stands in contrast to the contemporary novelists of romance, such as the once famous Mrs. Radcliffe.^ Of the novelists of manners the common parent, to a certain extent, was Richardson, while the novelists of romance had a precursor in the author of "The Castle of Otranto." But it is not in Miss Austen's relations to other writers or schools of writers that her importance consists. On her was bestowed, though in a humble form, the gift which had been bestowed on Homer, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Scott, and a few others—the gift of creative power. Short and simple are the annals of her life. Till near its close her genius was not recognized outside the circle ' Jane Austen's chronological relation to the other English novelists will be seen from the table at the end of the volume (p. 192). 12 LIFE OF of her own family, nor was it fully recognized till after her death. She had no literary acquaintance, and but a small acquaintance of any kind. Of her doings and sayings nobody took notes. Twenty years ago it was remarked in presence of one of her family that almost as little was known about her as about Shakespeare. Not long afterwards there appeared a memoir of her by her nephew, Mr. Austen-Leigh. It tells us her ap- pearance, her general character and habits, but it tells us little more. There was probably little more to tell. The works are the only biography. Perhaps there might be some disappointment even in the case of Shake- speare if pious inquiry could succeed in rescuing details from the night in which they have been lost. Since the publication of the memoir, a collection of Jane Austen's letters has been given to the world by her grandnephew, Lord Brabourne. The genial industry of the editor has done all that could be done, but the letters, in a biographical point of view, are disappointing. These, however, with Lord Brabourne's introductions, are our only source of information beyond Mr. Austen-Leigh's Memoir, which forms the staple of this as of the other biographies. Jane Austen was born on December i6, 1775—the year of the American Revolution—at the Parsonage House of Steventon, in Hampshire, of which parish, and of the neighbouring parish of Deane, her father, George Austen, was the rector. George Austen had been a fellow of St. John's College, Oxford. Lie was a good scholar, so that he was able to prepare two of his sons for the JANE A USTEN. 13 University, and was noted for his good looks, having been called "the handsome Proctor." His wife and Jane Austen's mother was Cassandra, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Thomas Leigh, who, after being a fellow of All Souls', held the College living of Hampden, near Henley-on-Thames,—and niece of Dr. Theophilus Leigh, for more than half-a-century Master of Balliol College, and the great University wit of his day. Jane had five brothers and one sister. Her eldest brother, James, was well read in English literature, was a writer in a modest way, and is believed to have had a large share in directing her reading and forming her taste. Her second brother, Edward, like Frank Churchill in "Emma," had been adopted by a wealthy rela- tive, Mr, Knight, of Godmersham Park in Kent, and Chawton House in Hampshire, and on coming into possession of the property changed his name to Knight.
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