Guest of Honor

I figured since this is Jane’s birthday that we should start by celebrating her life. The following is a brief summary.

                                              

Jane was born in 1775 to a family of, what would eventually be, 8 children. She and her sister Cassandra were very close and the only girls in the family. Her father was a parson and the family lived in Hampshire. Jane did go to a couple of boarding schools but was mostly educated at home. Her family were all great readers and Jane wrote many stories during her childhood. Jane was known for her lively mind, ready wit, and sharp edged humor, which she showed brilliantly in her writings.

Her sister Cassandra was engaged to be married but sadly her fiancée died of yellow fever in the West Indies. Cassandra decided not to marry, a decision that was later shared by Jane as well. Although she loved to flirt and dance and did know a young man named Thomas Lefroy there is little evidence of there being an actual understanding between them.

In 1801 her father retired and the family moved to Bath, which wasn’t Jane’s idea of a good time. She had already begun writing her early manuscripts of Sense and Sensibility (at that time called Elinor and Marianne) and Pride and Prejudice (First Impressions). At one time she accepted a proposal from a rich young gentleman by the name of Harris Bigg-Wither but thought better of it the next day. Her only motivation for marrying him would have been financial security for herself and her mother and sister. Upon her father’s death, her brothers all chipped in to help them but their circumstances were cause for worry. Their close friend Martha Lloyd moved in with them after her mother died. Finally in 1808 Jane’s brother Edward offered them a cottage in Chawton (a town in Hampshire).

                         

At the cottage Jane was free to write and enjoy the countryside. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811 to good reviews, earning her 140 pounds (about $12,000). Like all of her works, it was published anonymously “by a lady”, and even members of the family didn’t know it was their Jane who was such a gem. She then revised First Impressions, and Pride and Prejudice sold for 110 pounds ($9,000). After that she began her other works in earnest. She was uncomfortable with fame, though her brothers often revealed it was their little sister who was composing the masterpieces. Her fame grew until even the Prince Regent himself, whom Jane did not approve of, had his librarian seek her out to tell her that she could dedicate her next novel to him. Jane, unhappily, obliged with Emma.

In 1815 she began work on The Elliots (Persuasion) which was to be her final completed novel. She began to show symptoms of a then uncurable disease (what we now know as Addison’s). Jane died in Cassandra’s arms on the morning of July 18, 1817 at the age of 41. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Persuasion was published along with Northanger Abbey in December of 1817 by her brother Henry. Before her death in 1845, Cassandra burnt most of Jane’s letters, saving only a few for family members to whom they were written.         

                 


Happy Birthday Jane!