A Memoir of Jane Austen
Together with 'Lady Susan': a Novel

Much expanded version of the 1870 Memoir, including first publication of Lady Susan and The Watsons.

James Edward Austen Leigh (Author)

9781108003575, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

384 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.2 cm, 0.49 kg

When James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir of his famous aunt was published in 1870, far from satisfying public curiosity about Jane Austen as the family had intended, it simply raised a series of new questions, particularly about Jane Austen's unpublished work, which had been mentioned only in passing. Austen Leigh was persuaded to issue a much-expanded second edition in 1871. Here he included for the first time the complete texts of Jane Austen's novel in letters, Lady Susan, and the fragmentary novel The Watsons, as well as a brief summary of her last unfinished work, later known as Sanditon. At the same time he took the opportunity to revise the biographical sections of the Memoir partly to include new information that had come to light since the first edition, so that all in all the second edition has a significance for Austen scholars quite separate from the first.

Preface
1. Introductory Remarks
2. Descriptions of Steventon
3. Early compositions
4. Removal from Steventon
5. Description of Jane Austen's person, character, and tastes
6. Habits of composition
7. Seclusion from the literary world
8. Slow growth of her fame
9. Opinions expressed by eminent persons
10. Observations on the novels
11. Declining health of Jane Austen
12. The cancelled chapter of Persuasion
13. The last work
14. Postscript
15. Lady Susan
16. The Watsons.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]