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HISTORY
The Life of Jane Austen
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A feminist writer of the late 18th and early 19th Century, Jane Austen was born in Hampshire in 1775 before a premature death at the age of 41.
By Will Street
Jul. 25, 2019, 11:30 AM
Introduction
The famous author, Jane Austen, who wrote six major works, two of which were published posthumously, was a writer in the early 19th Century that commented on the dependence of women on marriage for favourable social standing and financial stability. Her popularity would grow and grow far later than her death in 1817. In the subsequent centuries, her literature has been lauded by academics and general readers alike for its irony, realism, wit and social commentary.
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, in 1775. A student who explored writing from an early age, authoring the unpublished Lady Susan during her adolescence, later publications of four major novels in the early 19th Century were the constituents of a blossoming and opinionated writing career. However, in 1817, her career was cut short when she died of a rare illness called Addison’s disease. In the analysis below, I chart the life of Jane Austen in more detail.
Childhood
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on the 16th December, 1775, to her parents Cassandra and George Austen who were thirty-four and forty-four years old respectively. Her father, George Austen, was the vicar of Steventon parish church, and also supplemented his income by farming and teaching three or four students who boarded his home. She had seven sibling altogether. These were James Austen (1765-1819), George Austen (1766-1838), Edward Austen (1768-1852), Henry Austen (1771-1850), Cassandra Austen (1773-1845), Francis Austen (1774-1865) and Charles Austen (1779-1852). Out of the family, she was the second youngest in age.
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As a child, Austen attended church regularly and socialised with friends and neighbours. In the evenings, she read novels aloud to her family, which at times could be her own composition. Socialising with neighbours at the time often entailed dancing, either at an impromptu occasion in someone’s house after supper, or at a ball held at the assembly halls in the town hall, which were regularly put on. Her brother, Henry, later recalled that Jane “was fond of dancing, and excelled at it.”
In 1783, at the age of eight, Jane and her sister Cassandra were to sent to Oxford, to be educated by a woman called Mrs. Ann Cawley. Ann Cawley took Jane and Cassandra, who was ten at the time, with her to Southampton, when she decided to move there later in the year. However, both Cassandra and Jane caught typhus, Jane nearly dying, so they were both sent home.
There, back at Steventon, Jane was home educated until 1785, when she and her sister were sent to Reading to attend Reading Abbey Girls’ School. Experiencing the boarding school’s curriculum, which probably included some modern-day academic subjects such as French and Music along with the contemporary apprehension of needlework and other fields, the Austen’s education was, unfortunately, cut short before December 1786, because the school fees were too high and the Austen family could no longer afford it.
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In the subsequent years beyond 1786, Jane never again lived away from her parents’ residence. Standing in the place of any boarding school education, Jane was rather educated by her father and two brothers, James and Henry, which predominately revolved around reading. The family would also hold amateur theatrical events and Jane, who was accustomed to write drama, including three short plays during her adolescence, immersed herself in the education in the literary arts the family provided.
Juvenilia and Early Manuscripts
From the early age of eleven, Jane began writing poems and stories for her family’s and her own entertainment. Written between 1787 and 1793, when Austen was between the ages of twelve and eighteen, they amount to three volumes totalling roughly 90,000 words of working drafts that are still preserved today. The themes of the literature generally focus on the boisterous, licentious behaviour of young teenage girls and largely encapsulated the thrill and high spirits of young free-thinking anarchist and feminist behaviour.
Her most ambitious work completed during this period was Lady Susan, which she wrote between 1793 and 1795 at the age of eighteen to twenty. This was a short epistolary novel, that was about a heroine who used her intelligence and charm to manipulate others.
In December 1800, George Austen unexpectedly announced that he was choosing to retire from the ministry, and the Austen family moved to Bath. There, they lived at 4 Sydney Place. The change in location was somewhat of a shock to Jane and she also travelled often through southern England, which altogether resulted in a far less fruitful period for her writing career. She only made some revisions to Lady Susan and started a novel which she later abandoned called The Watsons during her time living in Bath.
Offer of Marriage and Death of her Father
Jane Austen’s first and only known offer of marriage came both at a critical moment in her writing career and her own ideology. It came at the hands of Harris Bigg-Wither, who was a wealthy heir to extensive family estates in the area where Jane and Cassandra had grown up, but as their relatives recalled and others described him, a man who appeared hard to like.
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The account of the how the proposal occurred lies in a visit by Jane and her sister, Cassandra, to a house near Basingstoke to visit their long-standing friends Alethea and Catherine Bigg. There, their younger brother, a one Harris Bigg-Wither, had recently completed his studies at Oxford and was at the residence as well. Harris was said to have proposed there and then, and Jane accepted.
However, as described by Caroline Austen, Jane’s niece, and Reginald Bigg-Wither, a descendent of Harris, Harris Bigg-Wither was not attractive, but, rather, he was large and plain-looking. In conversation, further, they said he was almost completely tactless, spoke only a little and when he did, they said, he was aggressive and had a stutter. Jane was thus unattracted by him yet chose to accept the proposal for the financial stability it brought.
And the financial stability would have been much benefit. As well as having known Harris since they were young, with his extensive estates Austen could provide her parents’ with a comfortable old age, give Cassandra a permanent home and potentially assist her brothers in their careers. The plus points were therefore plain to see, however by the next morning Austen had changed her mind and withdrew the acceptance. No contemporary letters or diaries exist to provide us with an insight into how Austen felt about the proposal, however from her published works we can surmise that she was proud of the decision and did not regret it.
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However, her financial situation took a dive for the worse on 21st January 1805, when her father passed away. Their brothers, Edward, James, Henry and Francis Austen, pledged to contribute money and support their two sisters and mother in their living expenses. However, the family of three spent a few years facing hard times as they moved from rented accommodation to rented accommodation in Bath, before moving to the up-and-coming fashionable town of Worthing and then Southhampton.
Finally, the three women moved to Chawton in 1809. There, they stayed in a large cottage in Chawton village that was part of nearby Edward’s Chawton House estates. Having moved in on the 7th July 1809, relatives later recalled that they did not socialise with any gentry and entertained only when family visited. In the years when Jane lived from the age of 34 to her death, besides writing, the Austens spent much of their time teaching the children of the village how to read and write.
Published Author
During the early 19th Century, women did not possess the legal power to sign contracts. For a woman wishing to publish a novel, the standard procedure available to them was to use a male to represent them and sign the paperwork. The ideal for a woman at the time was to be a mother and wife, and not a celebrity author. Consequently, as the vast majority of female authors did, Jane Austen published her work anonymously to maintain the conceit that she was only publishing as a part-time vocation, which was considered acceptable enough to not degrade the ideal of feminine life at the time.
The first novel that she published was Sense and Sensibility (1811). Through her brother, Henry, the publisher, Thomas Egerton, agree to publish it “on commission.” Publishing “on commission” entailed the publishers advancing the cost of the printing and then taking a 10% commission on all books that were sold, paying the rest to the author. However, if the costs of the publication were not met, the author was liable to pay the losses. In this way, Sense and Sensibility appeared in bookshops in October 1811, and was described as being written “By a Lady”. Egerton, knowing that he was selling on commission, used expensive paper and set the price at 15 shillings.
The novel was received well and became fashionable and influential among young aristocratic opinion-makers. The high hopes and estimations of the novel can be gathered by the scale of its printing. In the early 18th Century, the paucity of the novel-reading public, and the large costs associated with hand production of books, particularly handmade paper, ensured that novels were only published in editions of 500 copies or less in order to limit the risk to the publisher and novelist. This was the common practice, and even some of the most successful titles during the period were not issued in editions greater than 700 or 800 copies. However, Austen’s novels were released in much larger editions. These ranged from 750 copies of Sense and Sensibility to 2,000 copies of Emma. It is unknown whether this was the choice of the publisher or her own, for only Pride and Prejudice was not published “on commission”, however Austen was able to earn £140 from Sense and Sensibility – a considerable sum of money that would give her financial independence.
After the success of Sense and Sensibility all her subsequent novels were published under the name “By the author of Sense and Sensibility.” During her lifetime, her name, Jane Austen, was never revealed on the publications. In January 1813, Egerton published the novel Pride and Prejudice, this time purchasing the copyright from Austen rather than selling it “on commission”. She sold it to him for the £110. Egerton used cheaper paper and set the price at 18 shillings to maximise profits. Advertised widely by Egerton, the book was an immediate success, receiving favourable reviews and selling well. The reception of the novel was so successful that had Austen published Pride and Prejudice on commission, she would have made a profit of £475, which was the equivalent to twice her father’s annual income. Some financial heartbreak therefore, however, in May 1814, Egerton published Mansfield Park, this time “on commission”, which brought in more revenue for Austen than any of her previous novels.
Success was therefore manifesting itself perfectly clearly in front of Austen. Her novels were being translated into French and in November 1815, the Prince Regent’s librarian even invited Jane to the Prince’s London residence and hinted that she should dedicate her next upcoming novel, Emma, to the Prince. Although this was never enacted, and Austen, in fact, wrote a satirical outline of a “perfect novel” based on the many suggestions she received from the Palace, Jane would go on to publish Emma in December 1815. She switched publishers from Egerton to John Murray, who was a better known publisher in London, and complemented Emma by releasing a second edition of Mansfield Park in February 1816.
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However, although Emma sold well, the other release, the new edition of Mansfield Park, did poorly, which offset most of the income from Emma. While Murray was preparing Emma for publication, Austen began another novel entitled The Elliots, which was later posthumously released as Persuasion, completing the first draft in July 1816. At a similar time, Henry Austen rebought the copyright to Lady Susan, which had been sold to another publisher several years previously.
Austen thus had two more completed novels ready to publish. However, 1816 her financial situation once again took a turn for the worse. In March 1816, Henry Austen’s bank failed, which deprived him of all his assets, left him deeply in debt and also cost Edward, James and Frank Austen large sums of money as well. As a result, Henry and Frank could no longer afford the contributions they had provided to their two sisters and mother. Both her financial backing and male signatory being therefore in jeopardy, Jane was unable to publish any more novels during her lifetime.
Illness and Death
Austen had been feeling unwell as far back as early 1816, however ignored the warning signs. By the middle of 1816, her condition had worsened, and she began an irregular decline. Suffering from what later academics have hypothesised as being Addison’s disease or Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, she finally put down her pen on the 18th March 1817. In the intermediary months she had made revisions to The Elliots and began one more novel, which she was unable to progress far into.
By April 1817, Austen was confined to her bed. Describing it as “bile” and rheumatism, her illness made it difficult to walk and she lacked energy. In May 1817, Cassandra and Henry brought her to Winchester for treatment, however by that point she was suffering agonizing pain and welcomed death. She later passed away on the 18th July 1817. Henry, on account of his clerical connections, was able to arrange for her to be buried in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral. There, although making little mention of her achievements as a writer, the epitaph praises Austen’s personal qualities, expresses hope for her salvation and mentions the “extraordinary endowments of her mind.”
Conclusion
As a writer who challenged the status quo of women requiring the marriage of a member of the landed gentry for favourable social standing and financial stability, Jane Austen’s literature was picked up upon extensively by later generations. Further into the 19th Century, the popularity of her novels increased significantly. This was fuelled by the republishing of her novels in Richard Bentley’s Standard Novel series in 1833 and the later publication by Jane’s nephew of A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869. Her popularity has continued to the modern era and in recent years inspired several films including cinematic adaptations of all four published novels.
Someone who was offered marriage into the landed gentry but declined it, and would face financial hard times often in her life, Jane’s own experiences in her life provided much inspiration for the themes explored in her novels. As a feminist icon, who believed subduing one’s happiness for financial stability was, as she put it in Sense and Sensibility, the “worse and most irremediable of all evils”, Jane Austen’s life and works speaks of empowerment of women at a time when it was so repressive.