In Memory of Jane Austen

Jane Austen

16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817

In spite of having produced only six full-length novels, Jane Austen is nonetheless regarded as one of the most popular authors ever to come from England. She has inspired a veritable industry of sequels, adaptations, movies, and miniseries.

It has been 203 years since her untimely death at the age of 41. Sounds unbelievable to hear, doesn't it? Could she have ever imagined the immense popularity and fandom her work would continue to inspire more than 200 years later?

Virginia Woolf called Jane Austen “the most perfect artist among women.” GK Chesterton praised her writing, saying, “I fancy that Jane Austen was stronger, sharper, and shrewder than Charlotte Brontë; I am quite sure that she was stronger, sharper, and shrewder than George Eliot. She could do one thing neither of them could do: she could coolly and sensibly describe a man.” JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, cites Austen as one of her influences and has read through Emma “at least twenty times.”

I am one of Jane Austen's biggest fans and have read all her full-length novels multiple times, and even her epistolary novella (Lady Susan), her incomplete novels (The Watsons and Sanditon) and her teenage works, published posthumously under the title of Juvenilia. In memory of one of my absolute favourite authors, here's some Jane Austen trivia for you all.

1. Dancing was very popular during Jane’s time as it offered the perfect (and in some cases, the only) opportunity for flirtations and courtship. Jane loved to dance and referred to it often in letters to her sister: “There were twenty dances, and I danced them all, and without any fatigue.”

2. None of the novels published during Jane’s lifetime gave her credit as author. Instead, the title page of Sense and Sensibility stated it was “By a Lady.” Her next, Pride and Prejudice, gave credit to “The Author of Sense and Sensibility.” The others followed in the same manner.

3. One of Jane’s favourite novelists was Fanny Burney. Austen alluded to Burney’s characters and novels in her own writings, and she even took the title Pride and Prejudice from Burney’s Cecilia.

4. Jane Austen wrote her last will and testament in 1817 at her Chawton home in Hampshire. Her assets totalled somewhere under 800 pounds ($1,540.50 in U.S. dollars), and she left just about everything to her only sister, Cassandra. But because the will was not signed by witnesses, two of Jane’s friends had to write a statement swearing they had known her for years and recognized her handwriting.

5. Jane Austen published Sense and Sensibility at her own expense. Published through Thomas Egerton in 1811, Austen was not only able to see her first work in print but also covered the publishing costs and made £140 in profit. Jane earned only about £630 from her works during her lifetime.

6. Jane Austen almost always gave her characters the names of real British families that were of high society in her time. For example, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy’s name was taken from two prominent families of England at the time, the Fitzwilliams and the D’Arcys. Other names that Austen adapted from the aristocracy of Britain include the Bertram family and the Wentworths.

7. The Austen family frequently held theatricals in their home, and Mrs. Austen insisted that all members of the family present should act. The Austen family was known to be excellent at writing and performing charades, and they practiced often as a pastime. Many of Jane’s earlier works were written for the evening pleasure of her family.

8. Jane Austen was a fan of the colour coquelicot, which is a mix of bright red-orange-pink.

9. Jane Austen was not known as a wonderful speller. She always confused the placement of i and e within words. She particularly had problems with the words believe, receive, piece, and niece, which her editors had continually to change, and which are noticeable in the remaining letters to her sister.

10. Jane’s favourite poet was William Cowper. Though their personalities were quite the opposite—the former cheerful and the latter melancholy—they shared a love for simple pleasures. Austen gave Cowper to both Fanny Price and Marianne Dashwood in her novels.

11. Jane Austen never married; however, she did receive a proposal of marriage on December 2, 1802, from Harris Bigg-Wither, a wealthy landowner and a friend of the family. Austen accepted the younger man’s proposal (Bigg-Wither was a mere twenty-one to Austen’s twenty-seven years). Following a sleepless night, Austen decided that she simply could not marry without love and withdrew her acceptance the very next morning.

12. Jane Austen features on the £10 note which was introduced in 2017, replacing Charles Darwin.

Jane Austen remained humble to the end. In an 1815 letter to a friend, she wrote, “I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress.”

What a marvellous lady! And what a blessing to literature!