Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Jane Austen
-
Standard Name: Austen, Jane
Birth Name: Jane Austen
Pseudonym: A Lady
Styled: Mrs Ashton Dennis
JA
's unequalled reputation has led academic canon-makers to set her on a pedestal and scholars of early women's writing to use her as an epoch. For generations she was the first—or the only—woman to be adjudged major. Recent attention has shifted: her balance, good sense, and humour are more taken for granted, and critics have been scanning her six mature novels for traces of the boldness and irreverence which mark her juvenilia. Her two unfinished novels, her letters (which some consider an important literary text in themselves), and her poems and prayers have also received some attention.
Mary Ann Evans (later GE
) accepted a proposal of marriage from a young artist, still unidentified, only to withdraw it when she apparently realised that her eager imagination had attributed to him attractions that...
Family and Intimate relationships
Elizabeth Jane Howard
They had been living together for more than a year, and EJH
had already embarked on the difficult stepmother relationship with the three Amis children—especially the two boys, who were living with them, and were...
Family and Intimate relationships
Cassandra Cooke
CC
was a first cousin of her namesake Cassandra Leigh Austen
, and first cousin once removed, as well as godmother, of the latter's daughter Jane Austen
. The older and younger novelist were not...
Family and Intimate relationships
Cassandra Cooke
Cassandra's cousin Jane Austen
criticised the household management of Samuel Cooke (who was her godfather), judging him a disagreable, fidgetty master to his servants.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
In his professional capacity he worried about competing with the Methodists
Family and Intimate relationships
Sarah, Lady Pennington
Her father, John Moore
, was an apothecary practising in the fashionable resort of Bath in Somerset, who seems to have become rich in his practice. His name and place of residence appears on...
PDJ
named Jane after her favourite author, Jane Austen
. She was reading Austen in a London bomb shelter not long before her daughter was born, and bombs fell incessantly around Queen Charlotte's Hospital
after...
Family and Intimate relationships
Eliza Fletcher
She said she was wrapped up in her children. Though she never could command the patience that qualified me to be their teacher, I delighted in making them my happy and confidential companions.
Fletcher, Eliza. Autobiography of Mrs. Fletcher, of Edinburgh. Editor Mary, Lady Richardson, Printed at the offices of C. Thurman for private circulation.
76
They...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Rigby
In 1849, ER
's friend Sara Coleridge
called her the most brilliant woman of the day . . . . She is thoroughly feminine, like that princess of novelists, Jane Austen
.
Coleridge, Sara. Memoir and Letters of Sara Coleridge. Editor Coleridge, Edith, Henry S. King.
301-2
Friends, Associates
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Liddell was to remain one of ICB
's close friends. She maintained a benevolent, almost aunt-like relationship with him, and although resident abroad he was an important source of support after Jourdain's death. He later...
Friends, Associates
Germaine de Staël
In Regency England GS
met Coleridge
, Southey
, and Byron
. Jane Austen
, however, made a point of avoiding her.
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
74, 76
Friends, Associates
Harriett Mozley
HM
enjoyed a visit in November 1838 to Fulwar William Fowle
, rector of Allington in Wiltshire, whose family was closely connected with Jane Austen
. Fowle was quite surprised and pleased
Mozley, Dorothea, editor. Newman Family Letters. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
78
at the...
Friends, Associates
G. B. Stern
One of GBS
's close friends was Sheila Kaye-Smith
, with whom she collaborated in works about Jane Austen
. Another was Noël Coward
, who met her after sending her a fan letter, introduced...
Friends, Associates
Cassandra Cooke
CC
met Warren Hastings
and his wife Marian
at Adlestrop in January 1791, and remained on friendly terms: she sent a message congratulating him at the end of his marathon trial.
Le Faye, Deirdre. A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family. Cambridge University Press.
132, 175
She and...
Health
Dora Carrington
Carrington attempted to give herself a miscarriage by riding a horse violently, and when this did not work she became depressed to a nearly suicidal degree.
Gerzina, Gretchen. Carrington: A Life of Dora Carrington, 1893-1932. John Murray.
