James Edward Austen-Leigh

This unique edition brings together for the first time Austen-Leigh's memoir of his aunt Jane Austen, together with shorter recollections by James Edward's two sisters. It also includes Jane's brother Henry's two biographical accounts. - ;'I doubt whether it would be possible to mention any author of note, whose personal obscurity was so complete.' James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir of his aunt Jane Austen was published in 1870, over fifty years after her death. Together with the shorter recollections of James Edward's two sisters, Anna Lefroy and Caroline Austen, the Memoir remains the prime authority for her life and continues to inform all subsequent accounts. These are family memories, the record of Jane Austen's life shaped and limited by the loyalties, reserve, and affection of nieces and nephews recovering in old age the outlines of the young aunt they had each known. They still remembered the shape of her bonnet and the tone of her voice, and their first-hand accounts bring her vividly before us. Their declared partiality also raises fascinating issues concerning biographical truth, and the terms in which all biography functions. This edition brings together for the first time these three memoirs, and also includes Jane's brother Henry Austen's 'Biographical Notice' of 1818 and his lesser known 'Memoir' of 1833, making a unique biographical record. -

And Other Family Recollections

A Memoir of Jane Austen

Jane Austen

A Memoir of Jane Austen by Her Nephew, 5th Ed., to which is Added Lady Susan and Fragments of Two Other Unfinished Tales by Miss Austen

'I doubt whether it would be possible to mention any author of note, whose personal obscurity was so complete.' James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir of his aunt Jane Austen was published in 1870, over fifty years after her death. Together with the shorter recollections of James Edward's two sisters, Anna Lefroy and Caroline Austen, the Memoir remains the prime authority for her life and continues to inform all subsequent accounts. These are family memories, the record of Jane Austen's life shaped and limited by the loyalties, reserve, and affection of nieces and nephews recovering in old age the outlines of the young aunt they had each known. They still remembered the shape of her bonnet and the tone of her voice, and their first-hand accounts bring her vividly before us. Their declared partiality also raises fascinating issues concerning biographical truth, and the terms in which all biography functions. This edition brings together for the first time these three memoirs, and also includes Jane's brother Henry Austen's 'Biographical Notice' of 1818 and his lesser known 'Memoir' of 1833, making a unique biographical record. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

and Other Family Recollections

To Which are Added Lady Susan and Fragments of Two Other Unfinished Tales by Miss Austen

A Memoir of Jane Austen is a biography of the novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817) published in 1869 by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. A second edition was published in 1871 which included previously unpublished Jane Austen writings.[1] A family project, the biography was written by James Edward Austen-Leigh but owed much to the recollections of Jane Austen's many relatives. However, it was the decisions of her close friend and sister, Cassandra Austen, to destroy many of Jane's letters after her death that shaped the material available for the biography.Austen-Leigh described his "dear Aunt Jane" domestically, as someone who was uninterested in fame and who only wrote in her spare time. However, the manuscripts appended to the second edition suggest that Jane Austen was intensely interested in revising her manuscripts and was perhaps less content than Austen-Leigh described her. The Memoir does not attempt to unreservedly tell the story of Jane Austen's life. Following the Victorian conventions of biography, it kept much private information from the public, but family members disagreed over just how much should be revealed, for example, regarding Austen's romantic relationships.The Memoir introduced the public to the works of Jane Austen, generating interest in novels which only the literary elite had read up until that point. It remained the primary biographical work on the author for over half a century.In the late 1860s, the Austen family decided to write a biography of Jane Austen. The death of Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving sibling, and the ageing of those who had any memory of her prompted the family to gather their papers and to begin recording their memories.[2] Public interest in Jane Austen was also developing and the family became concerned that an outsider or another branch of the family would produce a biography. James Edward Austen-Leigh, as the son of the eldest branch, "in a spirit of censorship as well as communication", thus began the project.[3] With the help and support of his sisters and Jane Austen's nieces, he collected materials. The biography was largely the work of James Edward Austen-Leigh, his half-sister Jane Anna Elizabeth Austen Lefroy and, his younger sister Caroline Mary Craven Austen, and their cousin Cassy Esten.[4] As Austen scholar Kathryn Sutherland points out in her "Introduction" to the Oxford edition of the Memoir, however, Austen-Leigh's biography is specific to the Steventon or Hampshire Austens, for whom Jane Austen is "nature-loving, religious, domestic, [and] middle class". The Godmersham or Kentish Austens viewed Jane Austen as more "inward and passionate...gentrified, improved willy-nilly by contact with her fine relations".[5] Moreover, as Caroline wrote, "the generation who knew her is passing away".[6] Much of the biography is based on the memories of those who had only known Jane Austen when they were children and she was their older aunt; the rest is based on written records passed down through the family.[7]As Sutherland explains, "the major ingredients of the Memoir, as well as its reverent colouring, are owed, in one way or another, to Cassandra Austen."[8] Cassandra was the executor of Jane's will and was responsible for the preservation and destruction of all remaining letters and manuscripts after Jane's death.[8] According to Caroline Austen, one of Jane Austen's nieces, Cassandra "looked [the letters] over and burnt the greater part, (as she told me), 2 or 3 years before her own death-She left, or gave some as legacies to the Nieces-but of those that I have seen, several had portions cut out".[9] Thus, while writing the Memoir, Austen-Leigh did not have access to large numbers of Jane Austen's letters. Furthermore, the rest had been scattered as bequests; a complete collection of Jane Austen's letters was only gathered in 1932.

Memoir of Jane Austen

Memoir of Jane Austen, by Her Nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh, with Introduction, Notes and Index by R. W. Chapman

Excerpt from A Memoir of Jane Austen Printed; and extracts are given from a novel which she had begun a few months before her death} but the chief addition is a short tale never before published, called 'lady Susan.' I regret that the little which I have been able to add could not appear in my First Edition as much of it was either unknown to me, or not at my command, when I first published; and I hope that I may claim some indulgent allowance for the difficulty of recovering little facts and feelings which had been merged half. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A Memoir of Jane Austen (Classic Reprint)

"A Memoir of Jane Austen" is a biography of the British Victorian novelist Jane Austen published in 1869, written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. This book is a family project, as it was written from the recollections of Jane Austen's many relatives. Austen-Leigh describes his aunt domestically as someone who was not interested in fame and only wrote in her spare time.

Northanger Abbey

Together with Brief Notices of the Adjoining Hunts

Recollections of the Early Days of the Vine Hunt, and of Its Founder William John Chute, Esq., M.P., of the Vine

Emma

Recuerdos de Jane Austen

«Su vida estuvo singularmente desprovista de incidentes: ninguna crisis importante, tan solo algunos pequeños cambios interrumpieron su plácido curso (...)» del libro Recuerdos de Jane Austen «Tres o cuatro familias en un pequeño pueblo es justo con lo que hay que trabajar.» Jane Austen Desde su muerte en 1816, la obra de Jane Austen había ido ganando paulatinamente adeptos en los círculos literarios británicos. En 1870, James Edward Austen-Leigh, hijo del hermano mayor de la novelista, creyó que había llegado el momento de publicar un esbozo biográfico de su tía y, antes de que alguien ajeno a la familia se le adelantara, quiso escribirlo él mismo. Sus Recuerdos de Jane Austen fueron, pues, no sólo la primera biografía de la escritora, y durante mucho tiempo el texto en el que se basaron las demás, sino la primera defensa por extenso de sus obras, que en su tiempo muchos consideraron «insulsas y banales, faltas de colorido, y carentes por completo de aventuras e interés». James Edward Austen-Leigh reivindica precisamente las cualidades que hoy más apreciamos de la autora: sus novelas, dice, «son como fotografías en los que los rasgos no se suavizan». Con cartas, pequeñas composiciones juveniles e incluso un cómico «Esquema de una novela atendiendo distintas recomendaciones», esta breve biografía compone un delicado y divertido retrato familiar de una personalidad genial.

James Edward Austen-Leigh

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