n nn HER LIFE AND LETTERS A FAMILY RECORD BY WILLIAM AUSTEN-LEIGH
AND RICHARD ARTHUR AUSTEN-LEIGH WITH A PORTRAIT NEW YORK K. P.
DUTTON COMPANY 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 1913 MM C - u v PREFACE
SINCE 1870-1, when J. E. Austen Leigh l published his Memoir of
Jane Austen, considerable additions have been made to the stock of
information available for her biographers. Of these fresh sources
of knowledge the set of letters from Jane to Cassandra, edited by
Lord Brabourne, has been by far the most important. These letters
are invaluable as memoires pour servir although they cover only the
comparatively rare periods when the two sisters were separated, and
although Cassandra purposely destroyed many of the letters likely
to prove the most interesting, from a distaste for publicity. Some
further correspondence, and many incidents in the careers of two of
her brothers, may be read in Jane Austens Sailor Brothers, by J. H.
Hubback and Edith C. Hubback while Miss Constance Hill has been
able to add several family traditions to the interesting
topographical information embodied in her Jane Austen Her Homes and
Her Friends, Nor ought we to forget the careful research shown in 1
Father of one of the present writers, and grandfather of the other
other biographies of the author., especially that by Mr. Oscar Fay
Adams. During the last few years, we have been fortunate enough to
be able to add to this store and every existing MS. or tradition
preserved by the family, of which we have any knowledge, has been
placed at our disposal. It seemed, therefore, to us that the time
had come when a more complete chronological account of the
novelists life might be laid before the public, whose interest in
JaneAusten as we readily acknow ledge has shown no signs of
diminishing, either in England or in America. The Memoir must
always remain the one first hand account of hen resting on the
authority of a nephew who knew her intimately and that of his two
sisters. We could not compete with its vivid personal recollections
and the last thing we should wish to do, even were it possible,
would be to super sede it. We believe, however, that it needs to be
supplemented, not only because so much additional material has been
brought to light since its publica tion, but also because the
account given of their aunt by her nephew and nieces could be given
only from their own point of view, while the incidents and
characters fall into a somewhat different perspective if the whole
is seen from a greater distance. Their knowledge of their aunt was
during the last portion of her life, and they knew Her best of all
in her last year, when her health was failing and she was living in
much seclusion and they were not likely to be the recipients of her
inmost confidences on the events and sentiments of her youth. Hence
the emotional and romantic side of her nature a very real one has
not been dwelt upon. No doubt the Austens were, as a family,
unwilling to show their deeper feelings, and the sad end of Janes
one romance would naturally tend to intensify this dislike of
expression but the feeling was there, and it finally found
utterance in her latest work, when, through Anne Elliot, she
claimed for women the right of fi loving longest when existence or
when hope is gone. 3 Then, again, her nephew and nieces hardly knew
how much she had gone into society, or how much, with a certain
characteristic aloofness, shehad enjoyed it. Bath, either when she
was the guest of her uncle and aunt or when she was a resident
London, with her brother Henry and his wife, and the rather
miscellaneous society which they enjoyed Godmersham, with her
brother Edward and his county neighbours in East Kent these had all
given her many opportunities of studying the particular types which
she blended into her own creations. A third point is the uneventful
nature of the authors life, which, as we think, has been a good
deal exaggerated...
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