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Jane Austen the Critic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Annette B. Hopkins
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Extract

Miss Austen, in a letter to her sister Cassandra dated December 18, 1798, writes thus of a circulating library about to be opened, presumably at Steventon, on January 14:

As an inducement to subscribe, Mrs. Martin tells me that her collection is not to consist only of hovels, but of every kind of literature, etc. She might have spared this pretension to our family who are great novel readers and not ashamed of being so; but it was necessary, I suppose, to the self-consequence of half her subscribers.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , June 1925 , pp. 398 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1925

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References

1 William Austen-Leigh and R. A. Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters. 2nd ed., N. Y., 1914, p. 117. Hereafter referred to as Life and Letters.

2 To Cassandra, Oct. 1798, Life and Letters, p. 111. All references to letters are to those addressed to Cassandra unless otherwise indicated.

3 Nov. 25, 1798, ibid., 114.

4 June 20, 1808, ibid., 206-7.

5 J. E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen. 2nd ed., London, 1870, p. 105.

6 Northanger Abbey, pp. 83-84. All references to the novels except Love and Freindship are taken from the “Everyman's Library,” ed., Dutton & Co.

7 Northanger Abbey, pp. 21-22.

8 Life and Letters, Preface, p. v.

9 See below, p. 416.

10 G. E. Mitton, Jane Austen and Her Times. London, 1905, p. 168.

11 See discussion of the term “Gothic novel” by C. F. McIntyre, P.M.L.A., XXXVI, 644ff.

12 Memoir, p. 42.

13 Memoir, p. 46.

14 Love and Freindship and other Early Works now first published from the original MS …with a preface by G. K. Chesterton, N.Y., 1922. See paper by the present writer, “Jane Austen's Love and Freindship, a Study in Literary Relations,” South Atlantic Quarterly, Jan., 1925.

15 See the oft-quoted letters to Mr. Clarke, librarian to the Prince Regent: one under date of Dec. 11, 1815 (Life and Letters, p. 320) and a subsequent letter—undated but written in reply to one of March 27, 1816 (Life and Letters, pp. 323-324).

16 Chap. XXII. This error, started by the author of the Memoir and followed by other biographers was corrected by G. E. P. A., Notes and Queries, S. 12, vol. I, 1916, p. 466.

17 Jan. 29, 1813, Life and Letters, p. 261.

18 Extracts from several letters. Life and Letters pp. 354ff.

19 Memoir, p. 147; Life and Letters, p. 298 & n. 1. Wm. Price is the only probable instance of a portrait drawn from life—her brother Charles.

20 Nov. 25, 1798. Life and Letters, p. 114.

21 Rosarme, or A Father's Labour Lost, London, 1814, 3 vols.

22 Memoir, p. 131.

23 Self-Control, Edinburgh (?) 1810; also in Standard Novels, pub. by R. Bentley, London, 1832.

24 Apr. 30, 1811, Memoir, 131.

25 Oct. 11, 1813, Letters of Jane Austen, ed., Edward, Lord Brabourne, London, 1884, II, p. 173.

26 Ralph Thomas (“Olphar Hamst”), A Handbook of Fictitious Names. London, 1868, p. 133.

27 Memoir, p. 42.

28 Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan, Woman: Or, Ida of Athens, London, 1809.

29 London, 1806.

30 Life and Letters, p. 226.

31 To her nephew, Edward Knight, Dec. 16, 1816, Memoir, p. 154.

32 Feb. 4, 1813. Life and Letters, p. 262.

33 Memoir, pp. 199ff.

34 Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh, Personal Aspects of Jane Austen, London, 1921, p. 91.

35 Sense and Sensibility, p. 379.

36 Sense and Sensibility, p. 380.

37 Mansfield Park, p. 385.

38 See below, p. 416.

39 Life and Letters, p. 365.

40 Ibid., p. 151.

41 Ibid., p. 156.

42 Ibid., p. 160.

43 E. S. Barrett, London, 1813. Reprinted with introd. by Sir Walter Raleigh, London, 1909.

44 March 2, 1814, Life and Letters, p. 292.

45 Life and Letters, p. 293.

46 Margiana, or Widdrington Tower, a tale of the fifteenth century in 5 vols. Anon. London, 1808; Jan. 10, 1809, Life and Letters, p. 225 & n.

47 Northanger Abbey, p. 31.

48 Dict., Nat. Biog.

49 Memoir, p. 84.

50 Northanger Abbey, p. 25.

51 Ibid., p. 15.

52 See this study, p. 411.

53 Paris, 1784.

54 Alphonsine, ou La Tendresse maternelle, Paris, réimprimé à Londres, 1806, 3 vols. Alphonsine or Maternal Affection, a novel, 2nd ed., 4 vols. London, 1807. The weaknesses of the translation are mentioned in a brief critical note in the Monthly Magazine (Vol. 55, 1808, p. 319).

55 Charlotte Lennox. The Female Quixote; or the Adventures of Arabella, London, 1752, 1783, 1810.

56 March 13. [1815]. Life and Letters, p. 365.

57 The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 22, (1752), p. 146.

58 The English title of Adèle et Théodore, Paris, 1782, Eng. trans., 1st ed., 1783; 2nd ed., 1784; 4th ed., 1796.

59 Jean Harmand, Mme de Genlis, Paris, 1912, p. 543.

60 Emma, p. 375.

61 Alicia de Lacy, an Historical Romance. London, 1814, 4 vols.

62 To her niece, Anna Austen, Sept. 28, 1814, Life and Letters, p. 360.

63 John Nichols, Literary Illustrations, Vol. VIII, pp. 329ff. Ref. in Dict. Nat. Biog.

64 Coelebs in Search of a Wife. Comprehending Observations on Domestic Habits and Manners, Religion and Morals. London, 1809.

65 Life and Letters, p. 228.

66 Life and Letters, p. 228.

67 Sense and Sensibility, p. 91.

68 Persuasion, pp. 85, 91, 92, 141.

69 Sense and Sensibility, p. 84.

70 Ibid., p. 42.

71 Mansfield Park, pp. 279-80.

72 March 5, 1814, Life and Letters, p. 294.

73 To Anna Austen, Sept. 28, 1814, Life and Letters, pp. 359-60.

74 J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott. Boston, 1902, vol. IV, p. 511. See also, IV, pp. 3 and 21.

75 April 30, 1811, Life and Letters, p. 251.

76 Persuasion, p. 85.

77 June 20, 1808, Life and. Utters, pp. 206-7.

78 To Anna Austen, Sept. 28, 1814, Life and Letters, p. 360.

79 P. 95.

80 Sept. S, 1796, Life and Letters, pp. 102-3.

81 Northanger Abbey, p. 32.

82 June 2, 1799, Brabourne I, p. 213.

83 Life and Letters, p. 260.

84 Feb. 9, 1813, Ibid., p. 263. Fanny was a favorite niece, the daughter of her brother Edward (Austen) Knight, who had been adopted by the Knights of Chawton.

85 Ibid., p. 306.

86 Ibid., pp. 328ff.

87 A Catalogue of the Printed Books in the Library of the British Museum.

88 Dict. Nat. Biog.

89 Birkbeck Hill, ed., Bosweli's Life of Johnson, 1904, vol. IV, p. 258.

90 Diary and Letters of Mme d'Arblay…. ed. by her niece, Charlotte Barrett, with preface by Austen Dobson. London, 1905. Vol. V, 1796, p. 293.

91 British Museum Catalogue of Printed Boohs.

92 Dict. Nat. Biog.

93 Dict. Nat. Biog.

94 Diet. Nat. Biog.; British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books.

95 Sixth American ed., Boston, 1808; Dict. Nat. Biog.