I hope you received my little parcel by J. Bond on Wednesday evening, my dear Cassandra, and that you will be ready to hear from me again on Sunday, for I feel that I must write to you today. [...] I want to tell you that I have got my own darling child from London.
--Jane Austen, in a letter to her sister Cassandra
Chawton, Friday, January 29 (1813)
200 years ago tomorrow Jane Austen penned those words to her sister. But what does the unmarried Austen mean by her, "own darling child"? She means, of course, one of the very first copies of her second novel Pride & Prejudice.
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| This is believed to be a painting of Jane Austen. Although there is no proof to back it up. One of the most FRUSTRATING aspects of being a 'Janeite' is that we have no real idea of what she looked like. |
Her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published two years previous in 1811, but no one knew who the author was. The title page merely said, By a Lady. The title page of Pride and Prejudice was no more clear, By the author of Sense and Sensibility.
Jane had begun working on Pride and Prejudice when she was still quite young. The first draft of the original story, then known as First Impressions, was finished sometime in 1799, according to janeausten.org.
She was amused, poor soul! That she could not help, you know, with two such people to lead the way, but she really does seem to admire Elizabeth. I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know.
--Jane in a letter to her sister Cassandra, regarding a friends opinion of her characters.
Chawton, Friday, January 29 (1813)
I love Jane Austen. I was only 10 or 11 when I was prowling around my Grandma's house looking for new books to read, and stumbled upon a very old copy of Pride and Prejudice. It was a little 'thick' for me then, but I have since read it many times. I love all of her books. I've read almost all of them. (I haven't gotten to her short story Love and Friendship just yet.) Persuasion is by far my favorite, but that 200th anniversary won't come for a while yet.
I also know that I'm not the only one who loves Jane's works. Her real fans don't refer to her as Austen. It seems almost too formal for someone who seems like a close friend.
Ah. There I've hit the nail on the head. Jane is my friend. She has been dead for 196 years, and yet somehow I have connected with her. How extraordinary is that? 200 years after her "darling child" was published, I am still reading, still connecting, and still falling in love with her work, and I'm not the only one. It amazes me every time I start to seriously think about her works.
If I was, would there be so many adaptations sill being produced today? Would her books still be in print? I don't think so. What an achievement. After all, who else can expect their children to celebrate a 200th birthday?
Oh! If you would like to know where I got all these quotes from, you can visit this website.
And if you would like to learn more about Jane, her life, and her books, visit http://www.janeausten.org/
This site is full of great information, and has links to Jane Austen Museums.
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