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Overview
2017 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen, whose six completed novels have never been out of print. Best known for her novels, 'Sense and Sensibility', 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Mansfield Park', and 'Emma', first published anonymously, Jane commented, critiqued and illuminated the life of the English upper classes. But did Jane's writings highlight anything about her own spirituality? In this celebratory book, Paula Hollingsworth explores Jane Austen's gentle but strong faith and the effect it had both on her life and her writing. Drawing on Jane's life story, her letters, her friendships, her books and the characters portrayed, Paula shows the depth of Jane Austen's spirituality.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780745968605 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Lion Hudson LTD |
| Publication date: | 04/21/2017 |
| Edition description: | New edition |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.12(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Paula Hollingsworth is a priest and a frequent speaker on English literature.
Read an Excerpt
The Spirituality of Jane Austen
By Paula Hollingsworth
Lion Hudson Plc
Copyright © 2017 Paula HollingsworthAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7459-6860-5
CHAPTER 1
Early Influences, 1775–86
"... everything was soon happily over ..." wrote the Reverend George Austen to his sister-in-law about the birth of Jane, his second daughter and seventh child. He described her as "... a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion. She is to be Jenny ..."
Family
The warm use of pet names by their father for his two girls suggests that Jane was born into a loving family, where girls were as welcomed and loved as boys. It was a large and lively home. Jane had six older siblings. Her only sister, Cassandra, was nearly three when she was born and there were already five brothers: James, who was ten, George, nine, Edward, eight, Henry, four, and Frank, whom she followed, was one and a half. A last brother, Charles, was to follow Jane four years later. Unusually, in this age of frequent child deaths, all eight of the children survived into adulthood – and Jane was the first to die, at the age of forty-one. There were other children in the house as well, for her parents ran a small school, and a number of boys slept in the rectory attics and were taught by the Revd Austen, alongside his own sons. The Austens ran the school as a large family rather than as an institution, and the schoolboys were like extra brothers to the Austen children.
Jane was born on 16 December in the depths of the harsh winter of 1775 in the small village of Steventon in Hampshire, seven miles west of the market town of Basingstoke. She was baptized at home, almost as soon as she was born, by her clergyman father, and it is likely that her first outing was up the road to her father's church for her public baptism at the beginning of the following April. For her first few months Jane was breastfed by her mother, but she was then put in the charge of a nurse or foster mother in the village, where she lived for another year, returning to live at home at the age of about one and a half. From a twenty-first-century perspective, with our modern understanding of the importance of child parent bonding, this might seem a cruel practice, and much has been made by some of her biographers of the effect it would have had on Jane in the future, but at that time this was a fairly common practice among people of the Austens' social class. Unlike many such children, who were sent far away, Jane stayed nearby in the village, was regularly visited by her parents and siblings, and was often brought home for a few hours.
One of her siblings, however, appears not to have lived at home, though he came on frequent visits. This was George, Jane's second oldest brother, who was nine when she was born. George suffered fits and failed to develop normally. It is possible that he was also deaf, as we know that Jane was able to communicate using some form of sign language and she may have learned this through communicating with George. Throughout his life, he was cared for elsewhere. There are very few mentions of George in the family's letters and paperwork, and, in the context of our time, which places a strong emphasis on social inclusion, this can seem uncaring. The Austen household was a large, boisterous one, so George was perhaps better protected and cared for elsewhere in a hopefully quieter environment. He died of dropsy at the age of seventy-two, a very good age in those days. He was then living in the village of Monks Sherborne, very close to the village where his oldest brother James was serving as vicar, and is described on his death certificate as having the position of "gentleman" at the time of his death. These two facts suggest that he may have been well cared for and treated respectfully throughout his life.
The Revd Austen's early description of Jane as "a present plaything" and a "future companion" for her sister Cassandra were to prove prophetic, for Jane and Cassandra were to be lifelong companions, always sharing a home except when one or the other was away visiting family or friends. It was said of Jane as a child that if Cassandra's head were to be cut off, Jane would have had hers cut off too. Such a close bond between Jane and her sister may have inspired the very deep closeness of sisters Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility and Jane and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.
Money was a pressing concern for Jane's parents, neither of whom had any inherited income, and we know that at the time of Jane's birth her father was fairly heavily in debt to various relations. Parish clergy were paid by tithes, which was a tax on the produce of the village land, payable by law to the rector of the parish. The tithes from the Revd George Austen's parishes brought in only £210 a year, which would have been inadequate for the needs of his growing family. So George Austen needed to look beyond his parish work for his income. As well as running a school within his home, he farmed some nearby land, whose produce further supplemented his income. Jane would have grown up without illusions about the reality of living on a tight budget, even though she had links into the aristocratic world, through her mother's family and her father's connections.
Cassandra Leigh, Jane's mother, was proud of the Leigh family's social position and links with the aristocracy, for her family was descended from a Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Leigh, who in 1558 had proclaimed Elizabeth I Queen. Cassandra's paternal grandfather was a squire of Adlestrop who had married the sister of a duke, James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos. But Cassandra Leigh was the daughter of a third son, and so no fortune had come her way. Her father, the Revd Thomas Leigh, was the rector of Harpsden in Oxfordshire. Cassandra had lived there until she moved with her parents to Bath, where her father died in 17 64.
George Austen, Jane's father, did not have such aristocratic connections, and his life had had an unpromising start. He was born in Tonbridge in Kent and his mother died when he was just a year old. His father, William Austen, who was a surgeon, remarried but died when George was six. His stepmother took no further interest in George and his two sisters. William's will appointed two paternal uncles, Francis and Stephen, as guardians to the three children. As Francis was a bachelor, the children initially lived with Stephen, who had a young family, but he treated them with harshness and neglect. Fortunately, Francis, who was a successful solicitor in Sevenoaks, had a greater concern for George, who soon came back to Tonbridge to live with an aunt, and at the age of ten began his formal education at Tonbridge School. Hard-working and bright, he won a fellowship to Oxford, and later an exhibition made it possible for him to take a Master's degree. He was ordained and held various roles; as a curate in Kent, a master at his old school, and a fellow at Oxford University.
It was through the wealthy husband of one of his second cousins, Thomas Knight, who was patron of the living of Steventon (which meant he had inherited the right to appoint clergy to that parish), that George was made rector there. His uncle Francis promptly added in the neighbouring parish of Deane, where he was the patron. We learn much of the power and potential influence of a patron over a poor clergyman in the depiction of the relationship between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice. George Austen, however, was more fortunate than Mr Collins, for his patrons did not expect him to exhibit the sort of fawning behaviour Mr Collins showed to his patron. In 1764, George married Cassandra Leigh in Bath, soon after her father's death. He and Cassandra may well have met in Oxford, as she had an uncle who was Master of Balliol College.
All of Jane's parents' social connections gave the family a prominent position in the area. George's Steventon patron, Thomas Knight, was a wealthy local landowner, owning an estate at nearby Chawton and land in and around Steventon, though he mainly lived on his estate at Godmersham in Kent. As a relation of their community's landowner, George would have been seen very much as his representative in the area and would have been required to act as "squire" in Thomas Knight's absence. Jane's mother's aristocratic and academic family connections enabled the family to move in the best social circles, and George's own educational and academic background would have ensured that he was highly respected. As a consequence, Jane's family received invitations for balls, parties, and other social occasions from all of the leading local families.
In spite of his education and potential, George Austen seemed content with his relatively poor livings, and stayed in Steventon for forty years until he retired to Bath in 1801. He does not appear to have sought a more prestigious parish despite all his social connections and academic attainments. In later life, Henry recalled his father as having been "not only a profound scholar, but professing a most exquisite taste in every species of literature". He was also a gentle, kind, and indulgent father. After his death Jane wrote to her brother Frank of the "virtuous & happy life" of their "Excellent Father" and remarked, "... his tenderness as a Father, who can do justice to?" Jane's mother was a good manager of the home and family, being down to earth and practical. Known for her intelligent wit and sense of humour, she had also grown up in a lively home where she had entertained her family and visitors with her poetry and charades. She could be sharp and was not backward in recognizing the foibles of others, so it is likely that Jane inherited much of her wit and her acerbic eye from her mother.
Village Life and Society
The village of Steventon, where Jane Austen grew up, was to be reflected in the conservative communities within most of her six main novels, and was the world in which she felt happiest and most secure. Just like Highbury in Emma, Steventon was a village community where each inhabitant knew, and was known by, their social rank, and related to other people accordingly. And, despite her family's financial concerns, Jane was born into a position of social privilege. Through her father's position as their clergyman, she would have known all the families in the village and that knowledge would have been greater of those who worked on the family's farm or as domestic staff in their home. She would have visited poorer families when there was sickness or need. However, as regards class, the family were on a social par only with the Digweed family at Steventon Manor: the only people from the immediate parish whom the Austens could have met as equals on social occasions. The term "neighbourhood", so often used in Jane Austen's novels, referred to those families within easy travelling distance, who could meet each other for a visit during the day or for an evening's entertainment. The neighbourhood of the Austens, therefore, would have covered a wider area than the immediate parishes of Steventon and Deane. As members of the gentry, the Austens would technically have been below people who ranked as aristocracy, but because both of her parents had aristocratic connections, they could mix socially with a wider group of people than would otherwise have been expected. Their neighbourhood was made up of the families of clergymen, squires, aristocrats, members of parliament, doctors, and lawyers, whose homes and social occasions were open to them – all living within a range of about fifteen miles of Steventon.
For the aristocratic Mr Darcy and the land-owning Bingleys of Pride and Prejudice, the neighbourhood around the small town of Meryton would be smaller than it was for the socially inferior Bennet family. Mrs Bennet, who could socialize with a wide group of people, could not see this, which led to embarrassment for her more perceptive daughter Elizabeth during a conversation between the families. Darcy had commented, "In a country neighbourhood you move in a very confined and unvarying society," but Mrs Bennet insisted, "I believe there are few neighbourhoods larger. I know we dine with four and twenty families."
As the popularity of Jane Austen's work grew in the later part of her life, she was once asked to broaden the range and scope of her novels. But she was determined to continue writing of the world with which she was familiar: "Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on," she wrote to her niece Anna. As well as the society she found in villages, Jane loved the countryside, and she gave some of her favourite characters, Elizabeth Bennet, Fanny Price, and Anne Elliot, her own love of walking through country lanes, enjoying the change of the seasons and watching the night skies. There is no doubt that the rural context of Jane's childhood and youth was a supremely important influence on her development.
Education and Schools
Education was highly prized by Jane's family. Stories would no doubt have passed down to Jane of her paternal great-grandmother Elizabeth Austen, who had been left badly off following the death of her husband, with six sons and a daughter to educate. Despite the drop in social status that such a step involved, she took up a post as matron and housekeeper at Sevenoaks School in 1708, in return for the free schooling of her sons. She passed down to her grandson the Revd George, and thus to her great-granddaughter Jane Austen, the belief that intelligence and eloquence could count for more in life than an inherited fortune.
There is every evidence that George Austen sought to develop such intelligence and eloquence in his children and pupils. He took on the education at home of all of his sons, (except George, who, as we have seen, lived elsewhere), before they moved out into the world. That his sons took up such different careers is indicative that he helped them to find the paths in life that suited their natural abilities and dispositions.
James, the oldest, was known in the family as "the scholar". His mother wrote of him: "Classical Knowledge, Literary Taste, and the power of Eloquent Composition he possessed to the highest degree ..." He went to Oxford at just fourteen, obtaining a scholarship as "founder's kin" through his mother's connections. In her childhood Jane's reading was very much directed by James, who clearly took a keen interest in his little sister's prowess in reading and writing.
Edward, as a twelve-year-old boy, caught the attention of the distant cousin and patron of Revd George, the aristocratic Thomas Knight of Godmersham, who requested that Edward should spend increasing periods of time in Kent with him and his wife, Catherine. As it became clear that they would have no children of their own to inherit their properties, the Knights expressed a wish to adopt Edward when he was sixteen, their only condition being that he change his surname from Austen to Knight. Thomas then continued Edward's education by training him up to be a country gentleman and in time to run the Knight family estates, which included the estate of Chawton in Hampshire. Much later in the Austen family story, Edward's role as squire of Chawton would play an indispensable part in Jane's vocation as a writer. Edward's relationship with his family appears to have remained warm and loving despite the abrupt change in his social and financial status.
Henry, described by his father as the most talented of Jane's brothers, followed James to Oxford when he was fifteen. Henry was less steady and serious than James, and though he was to become in time Jane's favourite brother, her description of one of his escapades – "Oh, what a Henry!" – shows that she was never under any illusions about his foibles. This is how, in later years, his niece Anna remembered him:
... the handsomest of the family, and in the opinion of his own father, the most talented. There were others who formed a different estimate, but for the most part, he was greatly admired. Brilliant in conversation he was, and like his father, blessed with a hopefulness of temper which, in adapting itself to all circumstances, even the most adverse, served to create a perpetual sunshine.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Spirituality of Jane Austen by Paula Hollingsworth. Copyright © 2017 Paula Hollingsworth. Excerpted by permission of Lion Hudson Plc.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction: Jane Austen – A Spiritual Writer?,1. Early Influences, 1775–86,
2. The Development of the Writer, 1787–1800,
3. The Early Novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey,
4. The Wilderness Years, 1801–09,
5. The Chawton Years, 1809–16,
6. The Later Novels: Mansfield Park,
7. The Later Novels: Emma and Persuasion,
8. Last Days and Legacy, 1817–The Present Day,
Appendix: Jane Austen's Prayers,
Notes,
Select Bibliography,
ndex,