When were Jane Austen's novels actually written?
After a couple of very morbid blog posts, I decided to concentrate more on celebrating Jane's works that we have come to love today. Among the truly dedicated fans, there can be some disagreement on the costume choices in some adaptations, with many adaptations opting for a later Regency style of dress mirroring the year in which they were published rather than the year in which they were first written. Of course, we know Jane to have started writing from a very young age. Her father, Rev. George Austen, kept a library and encouraged her in reading and writing. Her earliest works are of a different style to her later published novels, with the earliest known writings to be from 1786-7 when Jane was 11-12.
Love and Freindship (as Jane spelt it) is a popular short piece from Jane's early writings from 1790. It is written in an epistolary format (letters), with letters between two friends Laura and Marianne. It is a comic spoof on sentimental novels of the time and many like the story because it shows the early development of Jane's wit shown in her complete novels.
In 1791 at age 15, Jane wrote a History of England, which was illustrated by her sister Cassandra. Whilst it may sound serious, it's a really funny piece of work and I would highly recommend it. Jane herself describes herself as a "partial, prejudiced and ignorant historian". I'm particularly interest in the Tudors, so this period of royal history amused me, particularly her dislike of Elizabeth I: "Since wicked as she herself was..".
The work pokes fun in particular at Oliver Goldsmith's (1771) schoolroom History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II. You can find a scanned copy of the original History of England by Jane with transcript through the British Library: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/austen/accessible/introduction.html. History of England and Love and Freindship are now collected as part of Jane's Juvenilia, containing a collection of her early works that she copied years later into three notebooks, naming them Volume the First, Volume the Second and Volume the Third. In the 1800s, the family chose not to publish these early works, although James Edward Austen-Leigh does refer to one of the volumes in his memoir very briefly as "an old copy book containing several tales, some of which seem to have been composed while she was quite a girl". It wasn't until 1922 that Volume the Second was published under the title Love and Friendship. Volume the First followed in 1933, and Volume the Third wasn't published until 1951. This led to all volumes being first brought together in 1954 as Jane's Minor Works.
At the age of 19, Jane wrote Elinor and Marianne, which as with Love and Freindship was in epistolary (letter) format. No doubt you will recognise the names, and there is a reason for this, as she later came back to the story and changed it into the narrative we know today: Sense and Sensibility. The novel was the first of Jane's to be published in 1811. Thought to be written in 1794, Lady Susan, about a widow was another short epistolary novel. However, Jane never revised this into narrative format for publication and it wasn't published until 1874. Jane began writing a novel entitled First Impressions in 1796 whilst staying with her brother Edward Knight at Goodnestone Park. Jane's father sent the completed manuscript to Thomas Cadell, a London bookseller, but it was rejected by return of post. In this act we can see just how much her father supported her writing career.
The original manuscript has not survived but is assumed by some to also be in an epistolary format. Luckily, she returned to the story and made significant revisions between 1811-1812, and the novel was published in 1813 under the now famous Pride and Prejudice. It is thought that Jane changed the name as there were two other books published under the original title between her first writing the novel and her revisions. She took the title from the last chapter of Fanny Burney's novel Cecilia. Although she had written early versions at a young age for Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey was actually the
first of Jane's novels to be fully completed in 1798-99. It was originally titled Susan, as this was to be Catherine Morland's name. Austen revised the manuscript in 1803 and sent it off to London bookseller Crosby & Co. The bookseller did not publish Jane's novel and in 1816 her brother repurchased the manuscript for the same price of £10, and Jane made further revisions to the novel changing Susan to Catherine. Although Jane died in 1817, her brother Henry saw to it that the novel was published under the name of Northanger Abbey.
Jane began writing The Watsons in 1803 whilst she was living in Bath. The novel remained unfinished and Jane abandoned the manuscript in 1805 following her father's death. The father figure of the story was a clergyman and suffered with illness in the first chapters. Jane confided in Cassandra that Mr Watson was to die later in the novel, however, this is thought to have been too close to home and why Jane never returned to complete the novel.
Mansfield Park was written between 1811 and 1813, and was the third of Jane's novels to be published.
Emma was written in 1815. James Edward Austen-Leigh noted in his memoir that Jane said "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like". Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion were all written whilst Jane was living at Chawton Cottage, which is generally deemed to be one of the most successful creative periods of Jane's life. Persuasion was published alongside Northanger Abbey after Jane's death, although it was her last complete novel which she wrote in 1815-16. It is strange that the novels she completed first and last ended up being published together. Both novels are also similar in that they both feature the popular setting of Bath. Sanditon was to be Jane's last attempt at writing a novel in 1817. She began writing in January and had to give up in March as her illness became worse. The novel was originally entitled The Brothers but was renamed by the family following her death after the fictional seaside resort in the novel. Unfortunately the novel was never finished. And that dear readers is a faithful narrative of the writings of Jane Austen.
