Jane Austen Reviews

In this chapter Harman writes about the Austen families response to Austen’s growing popularity (as Caroline wrote to James Edward ‘this vexed question between the Austens and the public’)and the demand for more information.

• Catherine-Anne Hubback (Frank’s daughter) wrote a novel (which was essentially a continuation of The Watsons – not that the public knew)
• James Edward Austen Leigh wrote the memoir
• Lord Brabourne published the letters that were in his mother’s possession (his mother was Fanny Knatchbull – Edward’s daughter).

James Edward wrote the memoir to stop the speculation and to provide more information (the family hoped enough information). The memoir, however, generated more demand, people wanted to read her earlier works that were mentioned in the memoir and to know even more details about her life.

Harman believes two distinct groups of fans emerged; those who ‘were keen to celebrate Austen’s mental distinctiveness and Artistry and those who ‘took comfort in such an artist being just like the rest of us‘.

There is also a discussion on the different portraits of Jane Austen (the sketch by Cassandra, the prettied up version of the sketch and the Rice portrait).

I found it interesting that no one person was in charge of Jane Austen (so to speak). Her papers were spread amongst her family (when Cassandra died there was 23 living nieces and nephews) with Fanny having the majority. Harman dispels to Austen myths; one about Austen refusing to have a door oiled so she could hear people coming and therefore hide her writing and the second about the ‘little bit of ivory’.

Next Chapter – The Divine Jane

I don’t think I’m going to meet the 31st July deadline, but maybe I’ll make up some time in the later months. I plan to watch Mansfied Park in December – surely that won’t take an entire month?

Jane Austen died in July 1817 – she was 41. Her death notice in the Courier was the first public acknowledgement of her authorship. However, no mention appeared on the memorial inscription on her grave stone.

Both James and James Edward wrote poems to commemorate the occasion. Both mention how she put her domestic duties before her writing. James even seems to imply that this dutifulness was strategic – honouring a contract rather than a free choice.

At her death no one expected Austen to leave a literary legacy. Cassandra inherited everything (except two small legacies) including the manuscripts of Susan (now called Catherine) and The Elliots. Cassandra sent them to Murray to be published on commission. They were published as a four volume work with a brief biographical notice. This biographical notice received the most notice – it finally revealed who was the author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice and it wasn’t Augusta Paget or Elizabeth Hamilton, but an unheard of daughter of a clergyman. Henry wrote the biographical notice (which revealed her identity) because in his mind the story was over – ‘the hand that guided the pen is now mouldering in the grave’. In his notice Henry, like James, focussed on her conventional domestic skills. He also claimed that she hoarded her manuscripts for years and only after much strenuous persuasion did she agree to try to get them published.

The posthumous publication generated overviews of her body of work. Richard Whately wrote a long piece in the January 1821 edition of The Quarterly Review. He considered her to be uniquely truthful about women…

[Authoresses] seem to feel a sympathetic shudder at exposing a naked female mind [...]Now from this fault Miss Austin [sic] is free. Her heroines are what one knows women must be, though one can never get them to acknowledge it.

Harman writes …

The books exposed female fallibility so brilliantly and with such sporting candour that, as men picked up on the fact that these might not simply be ‘ladies’ novels, Austen’s male readership grew enormously.

The reviewer in Blackwoods praised her truth to life and thought she was truly remarkable in going against the style of her time (which was historical and highly romantic).

Immediately after her death there was only a small number of copies of her books in circulation, but her readership grew slowly – especially once she began to influence literary style. In the 1820s there was a set of novelists (including Thomas Lister) who wrote ‘escapist novels that idealised high society life’. Thomas Lister Grandy which seem to include many Austen like touches …

from a flirtation scene like that between Henry Tilney and Catherine Morland to home theatricals involving a Crawford.

Lister, however, sold many more books that Austen ever did.

At this time, there were French, Swedish and Russian translations of her novels (although not very accurate translations). Austen might even have influenced Pushkin.  One writer she did influence was James Fenimore Cooper (who went on to write The Last of the Mohicans) whose first novel Precaution is remarkable similar to Persuasion.

By the 1820s Austen was out of print and her novels were remaindered – this meant Cassandra and Henry had to pay the costs. In1831 Murrary offered to buy the copyrights, but Cassandra turned him down. Henry, however, accepted a similar offer a year later from Richard Bentley. Murray was the better imprint and would have paid more , as Harman says ‘this was something of a collapse’. Having all six novels inprint at the same time and affordable kept Austen’s readership growing.

Next chapter – A vexed question. 

 

When I set myself the task of reading two chapters a week of Jane’s Fame, I thought it would be easy. However, I have found myself at the end of a chapter without any real idea what I was reading. I haven’t been able to focus. This is in part because the book is such an easy read, but mostly because I’m just lazy. Anyway, here are my thoughts on Chapter Two.

Chapter Two is about the business of publishing and writing. James Edward Austen Leigh (in his memoir) believed Austen wasn’t distressed about her lack of early success.

I do not think that she herself was much mortified by the want of early success. She wrote for her own amusement. Money, though acceptable, was not necessary for the moderate expenses of her quite home.

She was, however, mortified she did want to make money and she wasn’t writing for her own amusement.

Tho’ I like praise as well as anybody, I like what Edward calls pewter too.

There is a prevailing idea that Austen had two creative phases separated by a period of silence (while living in Bath). Harman disagrees she just thinks there isn’t any documentation. She thinks Austen might still have been trying to get her work published and being rejected.

The move to Bath bought the family into closer contact with the book world – easier access to book sellers and printers. It was through a book seller she came into contact with Crosby who bought Susan for £10. This sale came at a good time in Austen’s life to justify her aspirations as a writer. She had just rejected Harris Bigg-Wither (a very eligible young man). However, the novel appeared. In 1809 a novel called Susan was published anonymously. Austen must have thought it was hers. Alas, like First Impressions her title was pre-empted. She wrote to Crosby to try to speed the publication. His son replied that they had never guaranteed publication and she could purchase it back for £10. This was a huge sum to Austen – her yearly allowance was £10. Of course to her brothers, Henry and Edward, this was a paltry amount, but her pride both personal and professional would not let her borrow money.

Harman also writes about the method of publication of each novel:

Sense and Sensibility by commission (Egerton paying all of the costs and receiving 10% Austen liable for all of the costs)

Pride and Prejudice she sold the copyright (for £110)

Mansfield Park by commission

She then swapped from Egerton to John Murrary (the publisher of Lord Byron).

Emma by commission.

I was fascintated to discover that Mansfield Park was the most successful finacially for Austen.

There is also information in this chapter on the reviews that appeared immediately after the novels were published. For example, about Pride and Prejudice

this performance … rises very superior to any novel we have lately meet with in the delineation of domestic scenes.

And also opinions Austen collected from family and friend. For example,

Mrs Austen thought the heroine [Fanny Price] insipid

Austen wrote The Plan of a Novel, according to hints from various quarters as a private (and satirical) response to all of the advice and opinions. Particularly from James Stanier Clarke the Prince Regent’s Librarian (who had many story ideas).

There is also a bit of information about the reworking of the resolution of the love story in Persuasion.

Next chapter: Mouldering in the Ground

This post is a bit delayed because I’ve been away (for school holidays) anyway …

Chapter One of Claire Harman’s Jane’s Fame provides some biographical detail, but more interestingly focuses on the writers in her family and amongst her acquaintance.

We read about her brothers James and Henry who produced The Loiterer (every Saturday from January 1789 to March 1790). James was considered to be the the writer of the family …

His seniority, his sex and his choice of the art of poetry over prose meant that even after his sister had become a highly praised novelist, he was still in all important respects still regarded as the writer of the family.

James Austen

They briefly had as a neighbour Samuel Egerton Brydges (the younger brother of Mrs Anne Lefroy) who published a book of poetry (poorly received) and later had some success as a novelist. He was the first published author with whom Austen came into contact – although she wasn’t that impressed with him as an author …

[after reading Arthur Fitz-albini] My father is disappointed – I am not, for I expected nothing better. Never did any book carry more internal evidence of its author. Every sentiment is completely Egerton’s. There is very little story, and what there is is told in a strange, unconnected way. There are many characters introduced, apparently merely to be delineated.

Her mother’s first cousin Cassandra Cooke wrote Battleridge but more importantly lived in the house opposite Fanny Burneyf or several years. Austen must have been intrigued by stories about Burney’s publishing dilemmas. There is some speculation as to whether Austen ever meet Burney, but she at least must have seen her from a distance. Austen was a fan of Fanny Burney and Harman believes ‘Pride and Prejudice is an elaborate homage to Camilla’ – having never read Camilla I couldn’t say.

Harman also believes that the delay in Austen getting published contributed to her brilliant novels…

Frustrating though this must have been for the author, the benefit to posterity could hardly have been greater [...]The longer Austen remained unpublished, the more experimental she became, and the more licence she assumed with bold, brilliant moves.

Next chapter Praise and Pewter.

My local Jane Austen group (jasaperth.com) have an Emma movie challenge – check it out.

I’ve read the Preface in which Ms Harman states her goal for this book

This book charts the growth of Austen’s fame, the changing status of her work and what it has stood for, or been made to stand for, in English culture over the past two hundred years.

In her own lifetime Austen’s books were not particularly successful – the editions were small and remaindered or pulped after her death. Henry Austen wrote what he thought was a definitive biography of Austen when he published Persuasion and Northanger Abbey in 1818.

A life of usefulness, literature and religion was by no means a life of event.

In the 1820s her novels were out of print considered too restrained and old fashioned for Victorian tastes. Critics had mixed responses; Charlotte Bronte hated the novels, G H Lewes liked them, etc. However, by the end of the century ‘all the reading world is at Miss Austen’s feet’.

And now her fame has reached all parts of the globe. Just to place her name in a book title seems to generate sales (The Jane Austen Book Club, Lost in Austen, etc). Since the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice there has been 15 adaptations (and a new Emma in the making).

Ms Harman observes that there have been two surges of popularity; the first after the publication of James Edward Austen-Leigh’s Memoir of Jane Austen and the second of the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice.

How did a young woman writing in the late 18th and early 19th Century become a ‘pivotal figure not simply in literature of all sorts but in the heritage and multimedia’?

I look forward to reading more…