Chapter One
Family
Family-with all its blessings, comforts, torments, and absurdities-plays a pivotal role in the lives of all of Jane Austens characters, as her own family did in hers. Austen was born on
December 16, 1775, into a large and tight-knit family-the seventh of eight children: six boys and two girls. Although her second eldest brother, George, who suffered from seizures and perhaps
also deafness and other disorders, was not raised at Steventon with the rest, several cousins made extended visits at various times and, with the addition of the student boarders that her
parents took in, the seven-bedroom house in which Jane grew up was a lively and bustling place. It is described by those who visited her family as being filled with witty and thought-provoking
conversation, a large library of well-read books, and the frequent performances of home theatricals (much like those Austen wrote about in Mansfield Park), particularly those of the satirical,
comedy-of-manners sort. Jane, who as an adolescent began writing her own plays, poems, and literary parodies to amuse her family (and no doubt herself), certainly thrived creatively in this
rich and stimulating environment, embarking on a serious literary career by the age of twenty, when she began First Impressions(later revised into Pride and Prejudice).
Austen was close, to varying degrees, to the brothers with whom she was raised. James, the eldest, also had literary leanings; he wrote poetry and, while he was at Oxford, he started a
periodical for gentlemen called The Loiterer, which he edited with their brother Henry. Later he became a clergyman, taking over the duties at Steventon after his father retired. Edward, the
third, was adopted in his teens by wealthy, childless cousins of the Austens, who were seeking an heir, and were extraordinarily fond of him. (He later officially took on their surname,
Knight.) Henry, born fourth, who is said to have been Janes favorite and who was witty and less serious than his brothers, handled many of the details of publishing her work. He married his
first cousin, the glamorous Eliza de Feuillide, whose first husband, a French count, had been guillotined, and who was ten years Henrys senior. Later in life Henry, like James, became a
clergyman. Frank (Francis) and Charles, the two youngest boys, entered the navy at an early age, and were away at sea much of the time (though their influence is apparent in the many naval
references that appear in Mansfield Park and Persuasion). Both eventually rose to the rank of admiral.
Jane was by far the closest to her only sister, Cassandra, nearly three years her senior. Neither of the sisters ever wed. The two shared a home and, in fact, a bedroom, for the whole of their
lives, with Cassandra and her mother (up until her death) carrying out most of the domestic duties. This arrangement lasted until July 18, 1817, when Jane passed away with her head in her
sisters lap. Their lifelong intimacy is clear in the frequency of the newsy, chatty letters exchanged between the two whenever they were apart. Jane strove to amuse Cassandra, as she often
pointed out in the letters, and her arch, often outrageous observations and insults about their mutual friends and acquaintances were obviously spurred on by that desire.
Austen also had a very large extended family, and frequently traveled to visit them. She felt great affection especially toward the profusion of nephews and nieces provided by her brothers; she
seemed to have a special affinity for the role of aunt, and often wrote to her nieces Fanny Knight (later Knatchbull), Anna Austen (later Lefroy), and Caroline Austen; and to her nephew James
Edward Austen (later Austen-Leigh, having added a second surname when he became his aunts-Mrs. Leigh Perrots-heir). They sought her advice, both of the romantic and the literary sort, as
writing talent seemed to run thickly in the Austen blood (Janes mother, though lacking a great deal of formal education, was known to be a clever letter writer, and also quite adept at rhyming
verse), and three of these four nieces and nephews published memoirs revealing a great deal of affection for their Aunt Jane.
＂It is very unfair to judge of anybodys conduct, without an intimate knowledge of their situation. Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any
individual of that family may be.＂ -Emma Woodhouse to Mr. Knightley, in Emma
* * * A family of ten children will always be called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number; but the Morlands had little other right to the word, for they
were in general very plain ... -from Northanger Abbey
