Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters Part 43

_Mrs. d.i.c.kson_ did not much like it--thought it very inferior to _P. and P._ Liked it the less from there being a Mr. and Mrs. Dixon in it.

_Mrs. Brandreth_ thought the third volume superior to anything I had ever written--quite beautiful!

_Mr. B. Lefroy_ thought that if there had been more incident it would be equal to any of the others. The characters quite as well-drawn and supported as in any, and from being more every-day ones, the more entertaining. Did not like the heroine so well as any of the others. Miss Bates excellent, but rather too much of her. Mr. and Mrs. Elton admirable and John Knightley a sensible man.

_Mrs. B. Lefroy_ ranked _Emma_ as a composition with _S. and S._ Not so _brilliant_ as _P. and P._ nor so _equal_ as _M. P._ Preferred Emma herself to all the heroines. The characters, like all the others, admirably well drawn and supported--perhaps rather less strongly marked than some, but only the more natural for that reason. Mr. Knightley, Mrs. Elton, and Miss Bates her favourites. Thought one or two of the conversations too long.

_Mrs. Lefroy_ preferred it to _M. P._, but liked _M. P._ the least of all.

_Mr. Fowle_ read only the first and last chapters, because he had heard it was not interesting.

_Mrs. Lutley Sclater_ liked it very much, better than _M. P._, and thought I had 'brought it all about very cleverly in the last volume.'

_Mrs. C. Cage_ wrote thus to f.a.n.n.y: 'A great many thanks for the loan of _Emma_, which I am delighted with. I like it better than any. Every character is thoroughly kept up. I must enjoy reading it again with Charles. Miss Bates is incomparable, but I was nearly killed with those precious treasures. They are unique, and really with more fun than I can express. I am at Highbury all day, and I can't help feeling I have just got into a new set of acquaintance. No one writes such good sense, and so very comfortable.'

_Mrs. Wroughton_ did not like it so well as _P.

and P._ Thought the auth.o.r.ess wrong, in such times as these, to draw such clergymen as Mr. Collins and Mr. Elton.

_Sir J. Langham_ thought it much inferior to the others.

_Mr. Jeffrey_ (of the _Edinburgh Review_) was kept up by it three nights.

_Miss Murden._--Certainly inferior to all the others.

_Captain C. Austen_ wrote: '_Emma_ arrived in time to a moment. I am delighted with her, more so I think than even with my favourite, _Pride and Prejudice_, and have read it three times in the pa.s.sage.'

_Mrs. D. Dundas_ thought it very clever, but did not like it so well as either of the others.

We do not know how Mr. Jeffrey's involuntary tribute of admiration was conveyed to the author, but we are sure she must have valued it very highly. It was not the first time she had collected a miscellaneous set of opinions on her work. The two following critiques on _Mansfield Park_--apparently from two ladies of the same family--will ill.u.s.trate the sort of want of comprehension from which the author had to suffer when she got outside the limits of her own immediate circle.

_Mrs. B._--Much pleased with it: particularly with the character of f.a.n.n.y as being so very natural.

Thought Lady Bertram like herself. Preferred it to either of the others; but imagined _that_ might be want of taste, as she did not understand wit.

_Mrs. Augusta B._ owned that she thought _S. and S._ and _P. and P._ downright nonsense, but expected to like _M. P._ better, and having finished the first volume, flattered herself she had got through the worst.

Meanwhile, the banking-house of Austen, Maunde, and Tilson, had closed its doors; and on March 23, 1816, Henry Austen was declared a bankrupt: the immediate cause of the collapse being the failure of an Alton bank which the London firm had backed. No personal extravagance was charged against Henry; but he had the unpleasant sensation of starting life over again, and of having caused serious loss to several of his family, especially his brother Edward and Mr. Leigh Perrot, who had gone sureties for him on his appointment as Receiver-General for Oxfordshire.

Jane herself was fortunate in losing no more than thirteen pounds--a portion of the profits of _Mansfield Park_.[314]

Henry Austen possessed an extraordinary elasticity of nature which made a rebound from depression easy--indeed, almost inevitable--in his case.

He returned at once to his original intention of taking Orders, as if the intervening military and banking career had been nothing more than an interruption of his normal course. Nor was it merely perfunctory performance of clerical duties to which he looked forward: he was in earnest, and began by making use of his former cla.s.sical knowledge to take up a serious study of the New Testament in the original language.

He seems to have been in advance of his age in this respect; for when he went to be examined by the Bishop, that dignitary, after asking him such questions as he thought desirable, put his hand on a book which lay near him on the table, and which happened to be a Greek Testament, and said: 'As for _this_ book, Mr. Austen, I dare say it is some years since either you or I looked into it.'

Henry Austen became in time an earnest preacher of the evangelical school, and was for many years perpetual curate of Bentley, near Alton.

He did not marry the 'Hanwell favourite,' but found a wife after some years in Miss Eleanor Jackson, who survived him.

It must have been somewhere about this time that Jane Austen succeeded in recovering the MS. of _Northanger Abbey_. An unsuccessful attempt to secure the publication of the novel in the year 1809 has already been noticed; but we learn from the _Memoir_ that after four works of hers had been published, and somewhat widely circulated, one of her brothers (acting for her) negotiated with the publisher who had bought it, and found him very willing to receive back his money, and resign all claim to the copyright. When the bargain was concluded and the money paid, but not till then, the negotiator had the satisfaction of informing him that the work which had been so lightly esteemed was by the author of _Pride and Prejudice_.[315]

Meanwhile, Jane had been for some months engaged on _Persuasion_. It was begun before she went to London in the autumn of 1815 for the publication of _Emma_; but that visit and all that happened to her during the winter must certainly have interrupted its composition, and possibly modified its tone. It is less high-spirited and more tender in its description of a stricken heart than anything she had attempted before.

In May, Ca.s.sandra and Jane left Chawton to spend three weeks at Cheltenham, stopping with their brother at Steventon, and with the Fowles at Kintbury on the way, and again at Steventon on their return.

Jane must have been decidedly out of health, for the change in her did not escape the notice of her friends. But whatever was the exact state of her health during the first half of this year, it did not prevent her from being able, on July 18, to write 'Finis' at the end of the first draft of _Persuasion_; and thereby hangs an interesting tale, which we cannot do better than relate in the words of the _Memoir_.

The book had been brought to an end in July; and the re-engagement of the hero and heroine effected in a totally different manner in a scene laid at Admiral Croft's lodgings. But her performance did not satisfy her. She thought it tame and flat, and was desirous of producing something better. This weighed upon her mind--the more so, probably, on account of the weak state of her health; so that one night she retired to rest in very low spirits.

But such depression was little in accordance with her nature, and was soon shaken off. The next morning she awoke to more cheerful views and brighter inspirations; the sense of power revived; and imagination resumed its course. She cancelled the condemned chapter, and wrote two others, entirely different, in its stead. The result is that we possess the visit of the Musgrove party to Bath; the crowded and animated scenes at the White Hart Hotel; and the charming conversation between Captain Harville and Anne Elliot, overheard by Captain Wentworth, by which the two faithful lovers were at last led to understand each other's feelings. The tenth and eleventh chapters of _Persuasion_, then, rather than the actual winding-up of the story, contain the latest of her printed compositions--her last contribution to the entertainment of the public. Perhaps it may be thought that she has seldom written anything more brilliant; and that, independent of the original manner in which the _denouement_ is brought about, the pictures of Charles Musgrove's good-natured boyishness and of his wife's jealous selfishness would have been incomplete without these finishing strokes. The cancelled chapter exists in ma.n.u.script. It is certainly inferior to the two which were subst.i.tuted for it; but it was such as some writers and some readers might have been contented with; and it contained touches which scarcely any other hand could have given, the suppression of which may be almost a matter of regret.[316]

For the cancelled chapter in _Persuasion_, and for other posthumous writings of the author, we will refer our readers to the second edition of the _Memoir_. They will not fail to note the delicate touches put to the characters of the Crofts by the Admiral's triumph over the servant who was 'denying' Mrs. Croft, and by the frequent excursions of husband and wife together 'upstairs to hear a noise, or downstairs to settle their accounts, or upon the landing to trim the lamp.' But the added chapters take one altogether into a higher province of fiction, where the deepest emotion and the most delicate humour are blended in one scene: a scene that makes one think that, had its author lived, we might have had later masterpieces of a different type from that of their predecessors.

_Persuasion_ is of about the same length as _Northanger Abbey_, and it seems natural to suppose that there was some purpose in this similarity, and that the two works were intended to be published together--as in the end they were--each as a two-volume novel. She certainly contemplated the publication of _Northanger Abbey_ (which at that stage bore the name of _Catherine_) after she had recovered it in 1816, and when she wrote the 'advertis.e.m.e.nt' which appears in the first edition of the book. Yet afterwards she seems rather to have gone back from this intention.

Writing to f.a.n.n.y Knight, March 13, 1817, she says:--

I _will_ answer your kind questions more than you expect. _Miss Catherine_ is put upon the shelf for the present, and I do not know that she will ever come out; but I have a something ready for publication, which may perhaps appear about a twelvemonth hence. It is short--about the length of _Catherine_. This is for yourself alone.

_Catherine_ is of course _Northanger Abbey_, and the 'something' is _Persuasion_. She returns to the latter in writing again to f.a.n.n.y, March 23, telling her she will not like it, and adding 'You may perhaps like the heroine, as she is almost too good for me.'

Two remarkable points in these extracts are: the statement that _Persuasion_ was 'ready for publication,' but was not to appear for a twelvemonth, and the idea that the character of the heroine was, as it were, imposed upon the author by an external force which she was powerless to resist. The intended delay in publishing _Persuasion_ shows how unwilling she was to let anything go till she was quite sure she had polished it to the utmost: and we may imagine that, had health returned, the one comparatively dull and lifeless part of the book--the long story of Mrs. Smith--would have been somehow or other brought to life by touches which she knew so well how to impart.

As for the doubt about publishing _Catherine_ at all, it was not unnatural. She might reasonably hesitate to put an immature work by the side of her most mature: she might (and we know that she _did_) feel that the social usages of sixteen years ago, which she was describing in this tale, were no longer those of the day; and it was possible that a satire on Mrs. Radcliffe was not what the public now wanted. The members of the Austen family, who managed the publication of her novels after her death, thought differently; and we are grateful to them for having done so.

Had she followed all the advice given her by her friends, she would have produced something very different from either _Northanger Abbey_ or _Persuasion_. It must have been in the course of the year 1816 that she drew up the following 'plan of a novel, according to hints from various quarters,' adding below the names of the friends who gave the hints.

Scene to be in the country. Heroine, the daughter of a clergyman[317]: one who, after having lived much in the world, had retired from it, and settled on a curacy with a very small fortune of his own. He, the most excellent man that can be imagined, perfect in character, temper, and manners, without the smallest drawback or peculiarity to prevent his being the most delightful companion to his daughter from one year's end to the other. Heroine,[318] a faultless character herself, perfectly good, with much tenderness and sentiment and not the least wit,[319] very highly accomplished,[320]

understanding modern languages, and (generally speaking) everything that the most accomplished young women learn, but particularly excelling in music--her favourite pursuit--and playing equally well on the pianoforte and harp, and singing in the first style. Her person quite beautiful,[321]

dark eyes and plump cheeks. Book to open with the description of father and daughter, who are to converse in long speeches, elegant language, and a tone of high serious sentiment. The father to be induced, at his daughter's earnest request, to relate to her the past events of his life. This narrative will reach through the greater part of the first volume; as besides all the circ.u.mstances of his attachment to her mother, and their marriage, it will comprehend his going to sea as chaplain[322] to a distinguished naval character about the Court; his going afterwards to Court himself, which introduced him to a great variety of characters and involved him in many interesting situations, concluding with his opinion of the benefits of t.i.thes being done away, and his having buried his own mother (heroine's lamented grandmother) in consequence of the High Priest of the parish in which she died refusing to pay her remains the respect due to them. The father to be of a very literary turn, an enthusiast in literature, n.o.body's enemy but his own; at the same time most zealous in the discharge of his pastoral duties, the model of an exemplary parish priest.[323] The heroine's friendship to be sought after by a young woman in the same neighbourhood, of talents and shrewdness, with light eyes and a fair skin, but having a considerable degree of wit[324]; heroine shall shrink from the acquaintance. From this outset the story will proceed and contain a striking variety of adventures. Heroine and her father never above a fortnight together in one place[325]: he being driven from his curacy by the vile arts of some totally unprincipled and heartless young man, desperately in love with the heroine, and pursuing her with unrelenting pa.s.sion. No sooner settled in one country of Europe than they are necessitated to quit it and retire to another, always making new acquaintance, and always obliged to leave them. This will, of course, exhibit a wide variety of characters, but there will be no mixture. The scene will be for ever shifting from one set of people to another; but all the good[326] will be unexceptionable in every respect, and there will be no foibles or weaknesses but with the wicked, who will be completely depraved and infamous, hardly a resemblance of humanity left in them.

Early in her career, in the progress of her first removal, heroine must meet with the hero[327]--all perfection, of course, and only prevented from paying his addresses to her by some excess of refinement. Wherever she goes somebody falls in love with her, and she receives repeated offers of marriage, which she always refers wholly to her father, exceedingly angry that _he_[328] should not be first applied to. Often carried away by the anti-hero, but rescued either by her father or the hero. Often reduced to support herself and her father by her talents, and work for her bread; continually cheated and defrauded of her hire; worn down to a skeleton, and now and then starved to death. At last, hunted out of civilised society, denied the poor shelter of the humblest cottage, they are compelled to retreat into Kamschatka, where the poor father, quite worn down, finding his end approaching, throws himself on the ground, and, after four or five hours of tender advice and parental admonition to his miserable child, expires in a fine burst of literary enthusiasm, intermingled with invectives against holders of t.i.thes. Heroine inconsolable for some time, but afterwards crawls back towards her former country, having at least twenty narrow escapes of falling into the hands of anti-hero; and at last, in the very nick of time, turning a corner to avoid him, runs into the arms of the hero himself, who, having just shaken off the scruples which fettered him before, was at the very moment setting off in pursuit of her. The tenderest and completest _eclairciss.e.m.e.nt_ takes place, and they are happily united. Throughout the whole work heroine to be in the most elegant society,[329] and living in high style. The name of the work not to be _Emma_,[330] but of same sort as _Sense and Sensibility_ and _Pride and Prejudice_.[331]

FOOTNOTES:

[311] The article would, of course, have been an impossibility had the _Review_ been published punctually, _Emma_ not appearing till late in December 1815.

[312] From information kindly supplied by Mr. John Murray.

[313] After a short mention of _Sense and Sensibility_ and _Pride and Prejudice_ (in which Sir Walter unkindly suggests that Lizzie Bennet in refusing Darcy 'does not perceive that she has done a foolish thing until she accidentally visits a very handsome seat and grounds belonging to her admirer'), the critic devotes considerable s.p.a.ce, including a long quotation, to _Emma_. Summing up, he declares as follows:--

'Perhaps the reader may collect, from the preceding specimen, both the merits and faults of the author.

The former consist much in the force of a narrative, conducted with much neatness and point, and a quiet yet comic dialogue, in which the characters of the speakers evolve themselves with dramatic effect. The faults, on the contrary, arise from the minute detail which the author's plan comprehends. Characters of folly or simplicity, such as those of old Woodhouse and Miss Bates, are ridiculous when first presented, but if too often brought forward or too long dwelt upon, their prosing is apt to become as tiresome in fiction as in real society.'

Had not Sir Walter found it necessary to be somewhat apologetic in commending in public anything so frivolous as a novel, his praise would probably have been more whole-hearted, as in the well-known pa.s.sage in his diary, under date March 14, 1826:--

'Read again, for the third time at least, Miss Austen's finely written novel of _Pride and Prejudice_. That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big Bow-Wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me.

What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!'

[314] No division or bitterness seems to have been caused in the family by these events: a remarkable proof of the strong affection which united them.

[315] _Memoir_, p. 130.