A collection of the classic author's most famous quotes features selections that have remained relevant since the late 1700s, in a volume that is organized under such headings as "Men," "Balls," and "Marriage." Original.

BECOMING JANE

Hyperion

Copyright © 2007 Hyperion
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4013-0904-6

Chapter One

Family

Family-with all its blessings, comforts, torments, and absurdities-plays a pivotal role in the lives of all of Jane Austen's characters, as her own family did in hers. Austen was born on December 16, 1775, into a large and tight-knit family-the seventh of eight children: six boys and two girls. Although her second eldest brother, George, who suffered from seizures and perhaps also deafness and other disorders, was not raised at Steventon with the rest, several cousins made extended visits at various times and, with the addition of the student boarders that her parents took in, the seven-bedroom house in which Jane grew up was a lively and bustling place. It is described by those who visited her family as being filled with witty and thought-provoking conversation, a large library of well-read books, and the frequent performances of home theatricals (much like those Austen wrote about in Mansfield Park), particularly those of the satirical, comedy-of-manners sort. Jane, who as an adolescent began writing her own plays, poems, and literary parodies to amuse her family (and no doubt herself), certainly thrived creatively in this rich and stimulating environment, embarking on a serious literary career by the age of twenty, when she began First Impressions (later revised into Pride and Prejudice).

Austen was close, to varying degrees, to the brothers with whom she was raised. James, the eldest, also had literary leanings; he wrote poetry and, while he was at Oxford, he started a periodical for gentlemen called The Loiterer, which he edited with their brother Henry. Later he became a clergyman, taking over the duties at Steventon after his father retired. Edward, the third, was adopted in his teens by wealthy, childless cousins of the Austens, who were seeking an heir, and were extraordinarily fond of him. (He later officially took on their surname, Knight.) Henry, born fourth, who is said to have been Jane's favorite and who was witty and less serious than his brothers, handled many of the details of publishing her work. He married his first cousin, the glamorous Eliza de Feuillide, whose first husband, a French count, had been guillotined, and who was ten years Henry's senior. Later in life Henry, like James, became a clergyman. Frank (Francis) and Charles, the two youngest boys, entered the navy at an early age, and were away at sea much of the time (though their influence is apparent in the many naval references that appear in Mansfield Park and Persuasion). Both eventually rose to the rank of admiral.

Jane was by far the closest to her only sister, Cassandra, nearly three years her senior. Neither of the sisters ever wed. The two shared a home and, in fact, a bedroom, for the whole of their lives, with Cassandra and her mother (up until her death) carrying out most of the domestic duties. This arrangement lasted until July 18, 1817, when Jane passed away with her head in her sister's lap. Their lifelong intimacy is clear in the frequency of the newsy, chatty letters exchanged between the two whenever they were apart. Jane strove to amuse Cassandra, as she often pointed out in the letters, and her arch, often outrageous observations and insults about their mutual friends and acquaintances were obviously spurred on by that desire.

Austen also had a very large extended family, and frequently traveled to visit them. She felt great affection especially toward the profusion of nephews and nieces provided by her brothers; she seemed to have a special affinity for the role of aunt, and often wrote to her nieces Fanny Knight (later Knatchbull), Anna Austen (later Lefroy), and Caroline Austen; and to her nephew James Edward Austen (later Austen-Leigh, having added a second surname when he became his aunt's-Mrs. Leigh Perrot's-heir). They sought her advice, both of the romantic and the literary sort, as writing talent seemed to run thickly in the Austen blood (Jane's mother, though lacking a great deal of formal education, was known to be a clever letter writer, and also quite adept at rhyming verse), and three of these four nieces and nephews published memoirs revealing a great deal of affection for their Aunt Jane.

"It is very unfair to judge of anybody's conduct, without an intimate knowledge of their situation. Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be." -Emma Woodhouse to Mr. Knightley, in Emma

* * * A family of ten children will always be called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number; but the Morlands had little other right to the word, for they were in general very plain ... -from Northanger Abbey

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I am greatly pleased with your account of Fanny; I found her in the summer just what you describe, almost another Sister, & could not have supposed that a neice would ever have been so much to me. She is quite after one's own heart. -from a letter to her sister, Cassandra, about their niece Fanny Knight, October 7-9, 1808

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Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a Lieutenant of Marines, without education, fortune, or connections, did it very thoroughly. -from Mansfield Park

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You will have a great deal of unreserved discourse with Mrs K. [Mrs. Knight, their brother Edward's adoptive mother], I dare say, upon this subject, as well as upon many other of our family matters. Abuse everybody but me. -from a letter to her sister, Cassandra, January 7-8, 1807

* * *

My dear itty Dordy's [Edward Austen (Knight)'s second son, George, Jane's nephew] remembrance of me is very pleasing to me; foolishly pleasing, because I know it will be over so soon. My attachment to him will be more durable; I shall think with tenderness & delight on his beautiful & smiling Countenance & interesting Manners, till a few years have turned him into an ungovernable, ungracious fellow. -from a letter to her sister, Cassandra, October 27-28, 1798

* * *

This ... brought them to the door of Mrs. Thorpe's lodgings.... "Ah, mother! how do you do?" said he, giving her a hearty shake of the hand: "Where did you get that quiz of a hat? it makes you look like an old witch. Here is Morland and I come to stay a few days with you, so you must look out for a couple of beds somewhere near." And this address seemed to satisfy all the fondest wishes of the mother's heart, for she received him with the most delighted and exulting affection. On his two younger sisters he then bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness, for he asked each of them how they did, and observed that they both looked very ugly. -on John Thorpe, in Northanger Abbey

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To Elizabeth it appeared, that had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening, it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit, or finer success; and happy did she...