Editing Jane Austen (section)

==Life==
{{For timeline}}

===Family===

Jane Austen was born in [[Steventon, Hampshire]], on 16 December 1775.  Her father George wrote of her arrival in a letter that her mother Cassandra "certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago". He added that the newborn infant was "a present plaything for Cassy and a future companion".<ref name="Le Faye 2004, 27">Le Faye (2004), 27</ref> The winter of 1775-1776 was particularly harsh and it was not until 5 April that she was baptised at the local church and christened Jane.<ref name="Le Faye 2004, 27"/>

[[File:Chawton Church, Steventon, Hampshire.jpg|thumb|upright=1.20|Church of St Nicholas in [[Steventon, Hampshire|Steventon]], as depicted in ''[[A Memoir of Jane Austen]]''<ref name="Le Faye 2004 20">Le Faye (2004), 20</ref>]]

Her father, [[George Austen (clergyman)|George Austen]] (1731–1805), served as the [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]] of the Anglican parishes of Steventon and [[Deane, Hampshire|Deane]].<ref>Todd (2015), 2</ref>{{efn|Irene Collins estimates that when George Austen took up his duties as rector in 1764, Steventon comprised no more than about thirty families.<ref>Collins (1994), 86</ref>}} The Reverend Austen came from an old and wealthy family of wool merchants. As each generation of [[primogeniture|eldest sons]] received inheritances, George's branch of the family fell into poverty. He and his two sisters were orphaned as children and had to be taken in by relatives. In 1745, at the age of fifteen, George Austen's sister [[Philadelphia Austen Hancock|Philadelphia]] was apprenticed to a [[Hatmaking|milliner]] in [[Covent Garden]].<ref name="geri">{{Cite web |date=2019-10-21 |title=Philadelphia Austen Hancock: Eliza de Feuillide's Mother |url=https://www.geriwalton.com/philadelphia-austen-hancock-eliza-de-feuillides-mother/ |access-date=2022-05-22 |website=Geri Walton |language=en-US}}</ref> At the age of sixteen, George entered [[St John's College, Oxford]],<ref>{{alox2|title=Austen, George (1)}}</ref> where he most likely met Cassandra Leigh (1739–1827).<ref>Le Faye (2004), 3–5, 11</ref> She came from the prominent [[Baron Leigh|Leigh family]]. Her father was rector at [[All Souls College, Oxford]], where she grew up among the gentry. Her eldest brother James inherited a fortune and large estate from his great-aunt Perrot, with the only condition that he [[Name change#Historical usage|change his name]] to Leigh-Perrot.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 8; Nokes (1998), 51</ref>

George Austen and Cassandra Leigh were engaged, probably around 1763, when they exchanged [[Miniature portrait|miniatures]].<ref>Le Faye (2004), 11</ref> He received the [[Benefice|living]] of the Steventon parish from Thomas Knight, the wealthy husband of his second cousin.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 6</ref> They married on 26 April 1764 at [[Church of St Swithin, Bath|St Swithin's Church]] in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], by [[Marriage license#England and Wales|license]], in a simple ceremony, two months after Cassandra's father died.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 11; Nokes (1998), 24, 26</ref> Their income was modest, with George's small ''per annum'' living; Cassandra brought to the marriage the expectation of a small inheritance at the time of her mother's death.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 12; Nokes (1998), 24</ref>

After the living at the nearby Deane rectory had been purchased for George by his wealthy uncle Francis Austen,<ref>Austen-Leigh, James Edward (1871). Memoir of Jane Austen (Second ed.). London: Richard Bentley and Son. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2019.</ref> the Austens took up temporary residence there, until Steventon rectory, a 16th-century house in disrepair, underwent necessary renovations. Cassandra gave birth to three children while living at Deane: [[James Austen|James]] in 1765, George in 1766, and [[Edward Austen Knight|Edward]] in 1767.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 11, 18, 19; Nokes (1998), 36</ref> Her custom was to keep an infant at home for several months and then place it with Elizabeth Littlewood, a woman living nearby to [[Wet nurse|nurse]] and raise for twelve to eighteen months.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 19</ref>

===Steventon===
[[File:SteventonRectory.jpg|thumb|[[Steventon, Hampshire|Steventon]] parsonage, as depicted in ''[[A Memoir of Jane Austen]]'', was in a valley and surrounded by meadows.<ref name="Le Faye 2004 20"/>]]

In 1768, the family finally took up residence in Steventon. [[Henry Thomas Austen|Henry]] was the first child to be born there, in 1771.<ref>Nokes (1998), 37; Le Faye (2004), 25</ref> At about this time, Cassandra could no longer ignore the signs that little George was [[developmentally disabled]]. He had seizures and may have been deaf and mute. At this time she chose to send him to be fostered.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 22</ref> In 1773, [[Cassandra Austen|Cassandra]] was born, followed by [[Francis Austen|Francis]] in 1774, and Jane in 1775.<!-- don't forget Charles?? source? --><ref>Nokes (1998), 37; Le Faye (2004), 24–27</ref>

According to the biographer [[Park Honan]], the Austen home had an "open, amused, easy intellectual atmosphere", in which the ideas of those with whom members of the Austen family might disagree politically or socially were considered and discussed.<ref>Honan (1987), 211–212</ref>

The family relied on the patronage of their kin and hosted visits from numerous family members.<ref name="Todd4">Todd (2015), 4</ref> Mrs Austen spent the summer of 1770 in London with George's sister, Philadelphia, and her daughter [[Eliza de Feuillide|Eliza]], accompanied by his other sister, Mrs. Walter, and her daughter Philly.<ref>Nokes (1998), 39; Le Faye (2004), 22–23</ref>{{efn|Philadelphia had returned from India in 1765 and taken up residence in London; when her husband returned to India to replenish their income, she stayed in England.  He died in India in 1775, with Philadelphia unaware until the news reached her a year later, fortuitously as George and Cassandra were visiting. See Le Faye, 29–36}}<!-- swap this source --> Philadelphia and Eliza Hancock were, according to Le Faye, "the bright comets flashing into an otherwise placid solar system of clerical life in rural [[Hampshire]], and the news of their foreign travels and fashionable London life, together with their sudden descents upon the Steventon household in between times, all helped to widen Jane's youthful horizon and influence her later life and works."<ref>Le Faye (2004), 29</ref>

Cassandra Austen's cousin Thomas Leigh visited a number of times in the 1770s and 1780s, inviting young Cassie to visit them in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in 1781. The first mention of Jane occurs in family documents upon her return,  "...&nbsp;and almost home they were when they met Jane & Charles, the two little ones of the family, who had to go as far as New Down to meet the [[chaise]], & have the pleasure of riding home in it."<ref>Le Faye (2004), 46</ref> Le Faye writes that "Mr Austen's predictions for his younger daughter were fully justified. Never were sisters more to each other than Cassandra and Jane; while in a particularly affectionate family, there seems to have been a special link between Cassandra and Edward on the one hand, and between Henry and Jane on the other."<ref>Le Faye (2004), 26</ref>

From 1773 until 1796, George Austen supplemented his income by farming and by teaching three or four boys at a time, who boarded at his home.<ref>Honan (1987), 14, 17–18; Collins (1994), 54.</ref> The Reverend Austen had an annual income of £200 ({{Inflation|UK|200|1773|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}) from his two livings.<ref name="Irvine 2005 p.2">Irvine (2005) p.2</ref> This was a very modest income at the time; by comparison, a skilled worker like a blacksmith or a carpenter could make about £100 annually while the typical annual income of a gentry family was between £1,000 and £5,000.<ref name="Irvine 2005 p.2"/> Mr. Austen also rented the 200-acre Cheesedown farm from his benefactor Thomas Knight, which could make a profit of £300 ({{Inflation|UK|300|1773|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}) a year.<ref>Lane (1995), 1.</ref>

During this period of her life, Jane Austen attended church regularly, socialised with friends and neighbours,{{efn|For social conventions among the gentry generally, see Collins (1994), 105}} and read novels—often of her own composition—aloud to her family in the evenings. Socialising with the neighbours often meant dancing, either impromptu in someone's home after supper or at the balls held regularly at the [[assembly rooms]] in the town hall.<ref>Tomalin (1997), 101–103, 120–123, 144; Honan (1987), 119.</ref> Her brother Henry later said that "Jane was fond of dancing, and excelled in it".<ref>Quoted in Tomalin (1997), 102; see also Honan (1987), 84</ref>

===Education===
[[File:CassandraAustenSilhouette.png|thumb|Silhouette of [[Cassandra Austen]], Jane's sister and closest friend]]

In 1783 Austen and her sister Cassandra were sent to [[Oxford]] to be educated by Ann Cawley, who took them to [[Southampton]] later that year. That autumn both girls were sent home after catching [[typhus]], of which Jane nearly died.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 47–49; Collins (1994), 35, 133.</ref> She was from then home-educated, until she attended boarding school with her sister from early in 1785 at the [[Reading Abbey Girls' School]], ruled by Mrs La Tournelle.<ref>Todd (2015), 3</ref> The curriculum probably included French, spelling, needlework, dancing, music and drama. The sisters returned home before December 1786 because the school fees for the two girls were too high for the Austen family.<ref>Tomalin (1997), 9–10, 26, 33–38, 42–43; Le Faye (2004), 52; Collins (1994), 133–134</ref> After 1786 Austen "never again lived anywhere beyond the bounds of her immediate family environment".<ref>Le Faye (2004), 52</ref>

Her education came from reading, guided by her father and brothers James and Henry.<ref>Grundy (2014), 192–193; Tomalin (1997), 28–29, 33–43, 66–67; Honan (1987), 31–34; Lascelles (1966), 7–8</ref> [[Irene Collins]] said that Austen "used some of the same school books as the boys".<ref>Collins (1994), 42</ref> Austen apparently had unfettered access both to her father's library and that of a family friend, [[Warren Hastings]]. Together these collections amounted to a large and varied library.  Her father was also tolerant of Austen's sometimes risqué experiments in writing, and provided both sisters with expensive paper and other materials for their writing and drawing.<ref>Honan (1987), 66–68; Collins (1994), 43</ref>

Private theatricals were an essential part of Austen's education. From her early childhood, the family and friends staged a series of plays in the [[rectory]] barn, including [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan|Richard Sheridan]]'s ''[[The Rivals]]'' (1775) and [[David Garrick]]'s ''[[Bon Ton (play)|Bon Ton]]''. Austen's eldest brother James wrote the prologues and epilogues and she probably joined in these activities, first as a spectator and later as a participant.<ref>Le Faye (2014), xvi–xvii; Tucker (1986), 1–2; Byrne (2002), 1–39; Gay (2002), ix, 1; Tomalin (1997), 31–32, 40–42, 55–57, 62–63; Honan (1987), 35, 47–52, 423–424, n. 20.</ref><!-- check all these refs --> Most of the plays were comedies, which suggests how Austen's satirical gifts were cultivated.<ref>Honan (1987), 53–54; Lascelles (1966), 106–107; Litz (1965), 14–17.</ref><!-- check all these refs --> At the age of 12, she tried her own hand at dramatic writing; she wrote three short plays during her teenage years.<ref>Tucker (1986), 2</ref>

===''Juvenilia'' (1787–1793)===

From at least the time she was aged eleven, Austen wrote poems and stories to amuse herself and her family.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 66; Litz (1986), 48; Honan (1987), 61–62, 70; Lascelles (1966), 4; Todd (2015), 4</ref> She exaggerated mundane details of daily life and parodied common plot devices in "stories [] full of anarchic fantasies of female power, licence, illicit behaviour, and general high spirits", according to [[Janet Todd]].<ref>Todd (2015), 4–5</ref> Containing work written between 1787 and 1793, the juvenilia (or childhood writings) that Austen compiled [[Foul papers|fair copies]] consisted of twenty-nine early works into three bound notebooks, now referred to as the ''Juvenilia''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Jane Austen's juvenilia |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/jane-austens-juvenilia |access-date=26 August 2020 |agency=British Library |archive-date=29 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729083926/http://bl/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> She called the three notebooks "Volume the First", "Volume the Second" and "Volume the Third", and they preserve 90,000 words she wrote during those years.<ref>Southam (1986), 244</ref> The ''Juvenilia'' are often, according to scholar Richard Jenkyns, "boisterous" and "anarchic"; he compares them to the work of 18th-century novelist [[Laurence Sterne]].<ref>Jenkyns (2004), 31</ref>

[[File:CassandraAusten-HenryIV.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]]. Declaredly written by "a partial, prejudiced, & ignorant Historian", ''[[The History of England (Austen)|The History of England]]'' was illustrated by Austen's sister, Cassandra ({{Circa|1790}}).]]

Among these works is a satirical novel in letters titled ''[[Love and Freindship]]'' {{sic}}<!-- well-known misspelling; do not alter -->, written when aged fourteen in 1790,<ref>Todd (2015), 5; Southam (1986), 252</ref> in which she mocked popular [[Sentimental novel|novels of sensibility]].<ref>Litz (1965), 21; Tomalin (1997), 47; Honan (1987), 73–74; Southam (1986), 248–249</ref> The next year, she wrote ''[[The History of England (Austen)|The History of England]]'', a manuscript of thirty-four pages accompanied by thirteen watercolour miniatures by her sister, Cassandra. Austen's ''History'' parodied popular historical writing, particularly [[Oliver Goldsmith]]'s ''History of England'' (1764).<ref>Honan (1987), 75</ref> Honan speculates that not long after writing ''Love and Freindship'', Austen decided to "write for profit, to make stories her central effort", that is, to become a professional writer. When she was around eighteen years old, Austen began to write longer, more sophisticated works.<ref name="Honan, 93">Honan (1987), 93</ref>

In August 1792, aged seventeen, Austen started ''Catharine or the Bower'', which presaged her mature work, especially ''Northanger Abbey'', but was left unfinished until picked up in ''[[Lady Susan]]'', which Todd describes as less prefiguring than ''Catharine''.<ref>Todd (2015), 5; Southam (1986), 245, 253</ref> A year later she began, but abandoned, a short play, later titled ''Sir Charles Grandison or the happy Man, a comedy in 6 acts'', which she returned to and completed around 1800. This was a short parody of various school textbook abridgements of Austen's favourite contemporary novel, ''[[The History of Sir Charles Grandison]]'' (1753), by [[Samuel Richardson]].<ref>Southam (1986), 187–189</ref>
{{external media| float = left| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?95776-1/jane-austen-life Presentation by Claire Tomalin on ''Jane Austen: A Life'', 23 November 1997], [[C-SPAN]]}}

When Austen became an aunt for the first time aged eighteen, she sent new-born niece [[Fanny Knight|Fanny Catherine Austen Knight]] "five short pieces of ... the Juvenilia now known collectively as 'Scraps' .., purporting to be her 'Opinions and Admonitions on the conduct of Young Women{{' "}}. For Jane-Anna-Elizabeth Austen (also born in 1793), her aunt wrote "two more 'Miscellanious {{sic}} Morsels', dedicating them to [Anna] on 2 June 1793, 'convinced that if you seriously attend to them, You will derive from them very important Instructions, with regard to your Conduct in Life.{{' "}}<ref name="Le Faye 1993">{{cite book |last1=Austen-Leigh |first1=William |last2=Austen-Leigh |first2=Richard Arthur |last3=Le Faye |first3=Dierdre |title=Jane Austen: A Family History |date=1993 |publisher=The British Library |location=London |isbn=978-0-7123-0312-5 |pages=76–77}}</ref> There is manuscript evidence that Austen continued to work on these pieces as late as 1811 (when she was 36), and that her niece and nephew, Anna and James Edward Austen, made further additions as late as 1814.<ref>Sutherland (2005), 14; Doody (2014) 87–89</ref>

Between 1793 and 1795 (aged eighteen to twenty), Austen wrote ''[[Lady Susan]]'', a short [[epistolary novel]], usually described as her most ambitious and sophisticated early work.<ref>Honan (1987), 101–102; Tomalin (1997), 82–83</ref> It is unlike any of Austen's other works. Austen biographer [[Claire Tomalin]] describes the novella's heroine as a sexual predator who uses her intelligence and charm to manipulate, betray and abuse her lovers, friends and family. Tomalin writes:

<blockquote style="border-left: 3px solid #ccc;">Told in letters, it is as neatly plotted as a play, and as cynical in tone as any of the most outrageous of the [[Restoration comedy|Restoration dramatists]] who may have provided some of her inspiration&nbsp;... It stands alone in Austen's work as a study of an adult woman whose intelligence and force of character are greater than those of anyone she encounters.<ref>Tomalin (1997), 83–84; see also Sutherland (2005), 15</ref></blockquote>

According to Janet Todd, the model for the title character may have been [[Eliza de Feuillide]], who inspired Austen with stories of her glamorous life and various adventures. Eliza's French husband was guillotined in 1794 during the French Revolution's [[Reign of Terror]]; she married Jane's brother Henry Austen in 1797.<ref name = "Todd4"/>

===Tom Lefroy===
[[File:Thomas Langlois Lefroy.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Langlois Lefroy]], [[Lord Chief Justice of Ireland]], by [[William Henry Mote|W. H. Mote]] (1855); in old age, Lefroy admitted that he had been in love with Austen: "It was boyish love."<ref>Tomalin (1997), 118.</ref> ]]

When Austen was twenty, [[Thomas Langlois Lefroy|Tom Lefroy]], a neighbour, visited Steventon from December 1795 to January 1796. He had just finished a university degree and was moving to London for training as a [[barrister]]. Lefroy and Austen would have been introduced at a ball or other neighbourhood social gathering, and it is clear from Austen's letters to Cassandra that they spent considerable time together: "I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together."<ref>Quoted in Le Faye (2004), 92.</ref>

Austen wrote in her first surviving letter to her sister Cassandra that Lefroy was a "very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man".<ref name = "halperin721">Halperin (1985), 721</ref> Five days later in another letter, Austen wrote that she expected an "offer" from her "friend" and that "I shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white coat", going on to write "I will confide myself in the future to Mr Tom Lefroy, for whom I don't give a sixpence" and refuse all others.<ref name = "halperin721"/> The next day, Austen wrote: "The day will come on which I flirt my last with Tom Lefroy and when you receive this it will be all over. My tears flow as I write at this melancholy idea".<ref name = "halperin721"/>

Halperin cautioned that Austen often satirised popular sentimental romantic fiction in her letters, and some of the statements about Lefroy may have been ironic. However, it is clear that Austen was genuinely attracted to Lefroy and subsequently none of her other suitors ever quite measured up to him.<ref name = "halperin721"/> The Lefroy family intervened and sent him away at the end of January. Marriage was impractical as both Lefroy and Austen must have known. Neither had any money, and he was dependent on a [[Benjamin Langlois|great-uncle]] in Ireland to finance his education and establish his legal career. If Tom Lefroy later visited Hampshire, he was carefully kept away from the Austens, and Jane Austen never saw him again.<ref>Le Faye (2014), xviii; Fergus (2005), 7–8; Tomalin (1997), 112–120, 159; Honan (1987), 105–111.</ref> In November 1798, Lefroy was still on Austen's mind as she wrote to her sister she had tea with one of his relatives, wanted desperately to ask about him, but could not bring herself to raise the subject.<ref name = "halperin722">Halperin (1985), 722</ref>

===Early manuscripts (1796–1798)===
After finishing ''Lady Susan'', Austen began her first full-length novel ''Elinor and Marianne''. Her sister remembered that it was read to the family "before 1796" and was told through a series of letters. Without surviving original manuscripts, there is no way to know how much of the original draft survived in the novel published anonymously in 1811 as ''[[Sense and Sensibility]]''.<ref>Sutherland (2005), 16–18; LeFaye (2014), xviii; Tomalin (1997), 107, 120, 154, 208.</ref>

Austen began a second novel, ''First Impressions'' (later published as ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''), in 1796. She completed the initial draft in August 1797, aged 21; as with all of her novels, Austen read the work aloud to her family as she was working on it and it became an "established favourite".<ref>Le Faye (2004), 100, 114.</ref> At this time, her father made the first attempt to publish one of her novels. In November 1797, George Austen wrote to [[Thomas Cadell (publisher)|Thomas Cadell]], an established publisher in London, to ask if he would consider publishing ''First Impressions''. Cadell returned Mr. Austen's letter, marking it "Declined by Return of Post". Austen may not have known of her father's efforts.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 104; Sutherland (2005), 17, 21; quotations from Tomalin (1997), 120–122.</ref> Following the completion of ''First Impressions'', Austen returned to ''Elinor and Marianne'' and from November 1797 until mid-1798, revised it heavily; she eliminated the [[Epistolary novel|epistolary]] format in favour of [[Third-person narrative|third-person narration]] and produced something close to ''Sense and Sensibility''.<ref>Le Faye (2014), xviii–xiv; Fergus (2005), 7; Sutherland (2005), 16–18, 21; Tomalin (1997), 120–121; Honan (1987), 122–124.</ref> In 1797, Austen met her cousin (and future sister-in-law), [[Eliza de Feuillide]], a French aristocrat whose first husband the Comte de Feuillide had been guillotined, causing her to flee to Britain, where she married Henry Austen.<ref name="King page 2">King, Noel "Jane Austen in France"  ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'', Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 p. 2.</ref> The description of the execution of the Comte de Feuillide related by his widow left Austen with an intense horror of the [[French Revolution]] that lasted for the rest of her life.<ref name="King page 2"/>

During the middle of 1798, after finishing revisions of ''Elinor and Marianne'', Austen began writing a third novel with the working title ''Susan''—later ''[[Northanger Abbey]]''—a satire on the popular [[Gothic fiction|Gothic novel]].<ref>Litz (1965), 59–60.</ref> Austen completed her work about a year later. In early 1803, Henry Austen offered ''Susan'' to Benjamin Crosby, a London publisher, who paid £10 for the copyright. Crosby promised early publication and went so far as to advertise the book publicly as being "in the press", but did nothing more.<ref>Tomalin (1997), 182.</ref> The manuscript remained in Crosby's hands, unpublished, until Austen repurchased the copyright from him in 1816.<ref>Le Faye (2014), xx–xxi, xxvi; Fergus (2005), 8–9; Sutherland (2005), 16, 18–19, 20–22; Tomalin (1997), 199, 254.</ref>
{{clear}}

===Bath and Southampton===
[[File:4 Sydney Place.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Austen's house, 4 [[Sydney Place, Bath|Sydney Place]], [[Bath, Somerset]]]]

In December 1800, George Austen unexpectedly announced his decision to retire from the ministry, leave Steventon, and move the family to 4, [[Sydney Place, Bath|Sydney Place]] in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], Somerset.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seekingjaneausten.com/bath.html|title=Bath|first=susan|last=hubbard|website=seekingjaneausten.com|access-date=27 May 2017|archive-date=16 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616014458/http://www.seekingjaneausten.com/bath.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> While retirement and travel were good for the elder Austens, Jane Austen was shocked to be told she was moving {{convert|50|mi|adj=off}} away from the only home she had ever known.<ref>Collins (1994), 8–9.</ref> An indication of her state of mind is her lack of productivity as a writer during the time she lived in Bath. She was able to make some revisions to ''Susan'', and she began and then abandoned a new novel, ''[[The Watsons]]'', but there was nothing like the productivity of the years 1795–1799.<ref>Sutherland (2005), 21.</ref> Tomalin suggests this reflects a deep depression disabling her as a writer, but Honan disagrees, arguing Austen wrote or revised her manuscripts throughout her creative life, except for a few months after her father died.<ref>Le Faye (2014) xx–xxii; Fergus (2005), 8; Sutherland (2005), 15, 20–22; Tomalin (1997), 168–175; Honan (1987), 215.</ref>{{efn| Doody agrees with Tomalin; see Doody, "Jane Austen, that disconcerting child", in Alexander and McMaster 2005, 105.}} It is often claimed that Austen was unhappy in Bath, which caused her to lose interest in writing, but it is just as possible that Austen's social life in Bath prevented her from spending much time writing novels.<ref name="Irvine, 2005 4">Irvine, 2005 4.</ref> The critic Robert Irvine argued that if Austen spent more time writing novels when she was in the countryside, it might just have been because she had more spare time as opposed to being more happy in the countryside as is often argued.<ref name="Irvine, 2005 4"/> Furthermore, Austen frequently both moved and travelled over southern England during this period, which was hardly a conducive environment for writing a long novel.<ref name="Irvine, 2005 4"/> Austen sold the rights to publish ''Susan'' to a publisher Crosby & Company, who paid her £10 ({{Inflation|UK|10|1800|fmt=eq|r=-1|cursign=£}}).<ref name="Irvine, 2005 3">Irvine, 2005 3.</ref> The Crosby & Company advertised ''Susan'', but never published it.<ref name="Irvine, 2005 3"/>

[[File:Godmersham Hall - geograph.org.uk - 407850.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Austen was a regular visitor to her brother [[Edward Austen Knight|Edward]]'s home, [[Godmersham Park]] in [[Kent]], between 1798 and 1813. The house is regarded as an influence on her works.<ref>{{cite news |title=Godmersham, Jane Austen's second home |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/kentish-express-ashford-district/20130606/282278137880255 |access-date=31 August 2020 |agency=Press Reader}}</ref>]]
The years from 1801 to 1804 are something of a blank space for Austen scholars as Cassandra destroyed all of her letters from her sister in this period for unknown reasons.<ref name = "halperin729">Halperin (1985), 729</ref> In December 1802, Austen received her only known proposal of marriage. She and her sister visited Alethea and Catherine Bigg, old friends who lived near [[Basingstoke]]. Their younger brother, Harris Bigg-Wither, had recently finished his education at Oxford and was also at home. Bigg-Wither proposed and Austen accepted. As described by Caroline Austen, Jane's niece, and Reginald Bigg-Wither, a descendant, Harris was not attractive—he was a large, plain-looking man who spoke little, stuttered when he did speak, was aggressive in conversation, and almost completely tactless. However, Austen had known him since both were young and the marriage offered many practical advantages to Austen and her family. He was the heir to extensive family estates located in the area where the sisters had grown up. With these resources, Austen could provide her parents a comfortable old age, give Cassandra a permanent home and, perhaps, assist her brothers in their careers. By the next morning, Austen realised she had made a mistake and withdrew her acceptance.<ref>Le Faye (2014), xxi; Fergus (2005), 7–8; Tomalin (1997), 178–181; Honan (1987), 189–198.</ref> No contemporary letters or diaries describe how Austen felt about this proposal.<ref>Le Faye (2005), 51.</ref> Irvine described Bigg-Wither as somebody who "...seems to have been a man very hard to like, let alone love".<ref>Irvine (2005), 3</ref>

In 1814, Austen wrote a letter to her niece Fanny Knight, who had asked for advice about a serious relationship, telling her that "having written so much on one side of the question, I shall now turn around & entreat you not to commit yourself farther, & not to think of accepting him unless you really do like him. Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection".<ref>Letter dated 18–20 November 1814, in Le Faye (1995), 278–282.</ref> The English scholar Douglas Bush wrote that Austen had "had a very high ideal of the love that should unite a husband and wife&nbsp;... All of her heroines&nbsp;... know in proportion to their maturity, the meaning of ardent love".<ref name = "halperin732">Halperin (1985), 732</ref> A possible autobiographical element in ''Sense and Sensibility'' occurs when [[Elinor Dashwood]] contemplates "the worse and most irremediable of all evils, a connection for life" with an unsuitable man.<ref name = "halperin732"/>{{efn|Elinor Dashwood's original quote from chapter 29, page 159, of ''Sense and Sensibility'' is: "the ''worst'' and most irremediable of all evils, a connection, for life, with an ''unprincipled'' man."}}

[[File:JaneAustenCassandraWatercolour.jpg|thumb|left|Watercolour of Jane Austen by her sister, [[Cassandra Austen|Cassandra]], 1804<ref>Kirkham (2005), 68–72; Auerbach (2004), 19.</ref>]]
In 1804, while living in Bath, Austen started, but did not complete, her novel ''The Watsons''. The story centres on an invalid and impoverished clergyman and his four unmarried daughters. Sutherland describes the novel as "a study in the harsh economic realities of dependent women's lives".<ref>Sutherland (2005), 15, 21.</ref> Honan suggests, and Tomalin agrees, that Austen chose to stop work on the novel after her father died on 21 January 1805 and her personal circumstances resembled those of her characters too closely for her comfort.<ref>Le Faye (2014) xxii; Tomalin (1997), 182–184; Honan (1987), 203–205.</ref>

Her father's relatively sudden death left Jane, Cassandra, and their mother in a precarious financial situation. Edward, James, Henry, and Francis Austen (known as Frank) pledged to make annual contributions to support their mother and sisters.<ref>Honan (1987), 213–214.</ref> For the next four years, the family's living arrangements reflected their financial insecurity. They spent part of the time in rented quarters in Bath before leaving the city in June 1805 for a family visit to Steventon and [[Godmersham Park|Godmersham]]. They moved for the autumn months to the newly fashionable seaside resort of [[Worthing]], on the [[Sussex Coast|Sussex coast]], where they resided at Stanford Cottage.{{efn|Austen's observations of early Worthing probably helped inspire her final, but unfinished novel, ''[[Sanditon]]'', the story of an up-and-coming seaside resort in Sussex.}} It was here that Austen is thought to have written her fair copy of ''Lady Susan'' and added its "Conclusion". In 1806, the family moved to [[Southampton]], where they shared a house with Frank Austen and his new wife. A large part of this time they spent visiting various branches of the family.<ref>Tomalin (1997), 194–206.</ref>

On 5 April 1809, about three months before the family's move to [[Chawton]], Austen wrote an angry letter to Richard Crosby, offering him a new manuscript of ''Susan'' if needed to secure the immediate publication of the novel, and requesting the return of the original so she could find another publisher. Crosby replied that he had not agreed to publish the book by any particular time, or at all, and that Austen could repurchase the manuscript for the £10 he had paid her and find another publisher. She did not have the resources to buy the copyright back at that time,<ref>Tomalin (1997), 207.</ref> but was able to purchase it in 1816.<ref>Le Faye (2014), xx–xxi, xxvi; Fergus (2005), 8–9; Sutherland (2005), 16, 18–19, 20–22; Tomalin (1997), 182, 199, 254.</ref>
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===Chawton===
[[File:Jane Austen house museum 7.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Cottage in [[Chawton]], Hampshire where Austen lived during her last eight years of life, now [[Jane Austen's House Museum]]]]

Around early 1809, Austen's brother Edward offered his mother and sisters a more settled life—the use of a large cottage in [[Chawton]] village{{efn|Chawton had a population of 417 at the census of 1811.<ref>Collins (1994), 89.</ref>}} which was part of the estate around Edward's nearby property [[Chawton House]]. Jane, Cassandra and their mother moved into [[Chawton Cottage|Chawton cottage]] on 7 July 1809.<ref>Le Faye (2014), xxii; Tomalin (1997), 194–206; Honan (1987), 237–245; MacDonagh (1991), 49.</ref> Life was quieter in Chawton than it had been since the family's move to Bath in 1800. The Austens did not socialise with [[gentry]] and entertained only when family visited. Her niece Anna described the family's life in Chawton as "a very quiet life, according to our ideas, but they were great readers, and besides the housekeeping our aunts occupied themselves in working with the poor and in teaching some girl or boy to read or write."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Grey|first1=J. David|last2=Litz|first2=A. Waton|last3=Southam|first3=B. C.|last4=Bok|first4=H.Abigail|title=The Jane Austen companion|url=https://archive.org/details/janeaustencompan00grey|url-access=registration|date=1986|publisher=Macmillan|page=[https://archive.org/details/janeaustencompan00grey/page/38 38]|isbn=9780025455405}}</ref><!-- reformat ref to be consistent - needs chapter title -->