This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.
For those looking for a glamorous, post-WW2, historical fiction novel for spring and summer, I have great news for you! Natalie Jenner, the bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls, is back with a new novel called Every Time We Say Goodbye!
If you fell in love with Jenner’s writing, storylines, and characters when you read her first two novels, then add this third installment to your TBR list. Though Jenner’s books can be read as stand-alone stories, they each tie to the others.
This time, we follow actress and playwright Vivien Lowry, one of the original (fictional) members of the Jane Austen Society, to 1950s, post-war Italy to pursue her film career.
Book Details
The bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls returns with a brilliant novel of love and art, of grief and memory, of confronting the past and facing the future.
In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry’s last chance for a dramatic career.
With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job in as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. There she finds a vibrant movie making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy.
As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a brilliant exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary, from the incomparable author who charmed the world with her novelsThe Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls.
Audiobook
If you prefer listening to your historical fiction, BAFTA Award-winning actress Juliet Aubrey has narrated the audiobook of Every Time We Say Goodbye.
“Aubrey won the BAFTA for her performance as the quintessential Dorothea Brooke in the BBC’s 1994 production of Middlemarch and has appeared in dozens of television, film, stage, and radio programs over her impressive career, most recently winning the BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Actress in 2022. Aubrey has a voice full of dusky cadence, emotion, and subtlety, and brings to the audiobook a mastery of dialect and intonation.”
I highly recommend listening to this one! I’ve been listening, and I love the play between the English, American, and Italian accents. You can listen to an excerpt from the audiobook for Every Time We Say Goodbye here:
Every Time We Say Goodbye releases May 14, 2024. You can purchase the book online or in any of your local retail bookshops. If you’d like a hardcover copy, the details are below:
One of Bookbub’s Best Historical Fiction Books for Spring! One of the CBC’s Most Anticipated Canadian Novels this Spring!
“Jenner provides an insightful view into Italy’s postwar reckoning, and she imbues the novel’s many celebrity cameos – including actresses Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida―with authentic flair. Jenner’s fans will love this.” ―Publishers Weekly
“With warmth and compassion…lush descriptions, vivid period detail, and fascinating personalities, Jenner’s cinematic narrative is shot through with both pain and hope.” ―Shelf Awareness
About the Author
NATALIE JENNER is the author of the international bestseller The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls. A Goodreads Choice Award runner-up for historical fiction and finalist for best debut novel, The Jane Austen Society was a USA Today and #1 national bestseller, and has been sold for translation in twenty countries.
Born in England and raised in Canada, Natalie has been a corporate lawyer, career coach and, most recently, an independent bookstore owner in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs. Visit her website for more.
Jane Austen News from Natalie
Finally, it’s my great joy to announce that Natalie has a 4th upcoming novel slated for 2025, tentatively titled Austen at Sea, just in time for Jane Austen’s 250th celebration!
This new novel, once again about Austen’s fans, is set in 1865 Boston and Hampshire. Here’s a brief introduction:
“In Austen at Sea, Henrietta and Charlotte Stevenson, the only children of a widowed Massachusetts supreme court judge, are desperate to experience freedom of any kind, at a time when young unmarried women are kept largely at home. Striking up a correspondence with Jane Austen’s last surviving sibling, ninety-one-year-old retired admiral Sir Francis Austen, the two sisters invite themselves to visit and end up sneaking on board the S. S. China, a transatlantic mail packet steamship heading to Portsmouth.”
Inquiring Readers, Mr Malcolm Coles contacted me a little over a month ago regarding “A Guide to the Jewellery of Jane Austen”, written by Talia Wallis, March 16, 2024 and found on his website at antiqueringboutique.com. Her article begins with this introduction:
Jane Austen is a legend of British literature. Over 200 years after their publication, novels like Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility continue to enchant readers worldwide. Likewise, the late Georgian Regency era in which Austen lived remains widely used in popular culture.
But Austen’s legacy extends far beyond her gripping tales. Her style — particularly her jewellery — is popular with fans and collectors. In particular, a turquoise ring that belonged to Austen has gained an almost mythical reputation. This piece, alongside a collection of her remaining jewellery, offers us a unique glimpse into the everyday life of a literary icon.
Coles discussion centers on the fashions in Austen’s time; what Regency jewelry was like (this description is accompanied by a YouTube video of a talk given by Carrie Wright at a JASNA conference in 2015 entitled “The Socio-Political Powers of Jane Austen’s Jewelry, and the Jewelry in Austen’s Novels”; the jewelry Austen wore; her famous turquoise ring, its provenance, and how the Jane Austen Museum raised funds to acquire it from American singer Kelly Clarkson, who had outbid others to purchase the ring; the topaz necklaces the Austen sisters received from their youngest brother, Charles; and more. Find the article at this link to The Antique Ring Boutique. Estimated reading time: 6 – 10 minutes
Anne Lefroy, a dear friend of young Jane Austen, lived about two and a half miles north of Steventon, in the village of Ashe. Wealthy Benjamin Langlois was patron of the parish church, and he gave the living of Ashe to his nephew, Reverend Isaac Peter George Lefroy (called George) in 1783, when Jane was eight years old. At that time the church was called St. Andrew’s, and Ashe was spelled Ash.
Church of the Holy Trinity and St. Andrew at Ashe. While there has been a church on this site since Norman times, major rebuilding was done in 1878-9 by the Victorian church architect, George Gilbert Scott. So this is not the same building Jane Austen knew. The belfry houses one bell and occasional bats.
Rev. Lefroy’s wife was Anne Lefroy, cultured, educated, and hospitable. She wrote poetry, and had two witty poems published before her marriage. Because of her sophistication and hospitality, in the neighbourhood she was “known affectionately and respectfully” as Madam Lefroy. Mrs. Lefroy was 25 years older than Jane. So how did they become friends? According to information sheets at the church,
“Anne Lefroy and Jane Austen, despite their age difference, formed a close friendship that started when the Lefroys invited the 11-year-old Jane to play with their 7-year-old daughter. Due to a mutual love of literature, Anne and Jane are believed to have had long literary discussions. Jane was allowed access to the extensive library of the Ashe rectory. Jane may also have shared her writing with Anne who, some have suggested, acted as a surrogate parent. This must have acted as an important source of support for Jane in her early years of writing.”
This is speculative. But Mrs. Lefroy is often mentioned in Jane Austen’s letters. Jane frequently visited the Lefroys’ parsonage and attended dances and parties there and at the local squire’s house, Ashe Park.
Rectors of Holy Trinity, Ashe. Rev. George Lefroy, wife of Jane’s friend Anne Lefroy, was rector from 1783 to 1806. His son John Henry followed him as rector, then another son, Benjamin, who married Jane Austen’s niece Anna Austen.
Tom Lefroy
Famously, Jane danced and flirted with George Lefroy’s nephew from Ireland, Tom Lefroy, when he came for a visit in 1796. She wrote to Cassandra, “Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together” (Jan. 9, 1796). A week later, on January 15, she wrote, “At length the Day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy. . . . My tears flow as I write, at the melancholy idea.” She immediately starts another topic and we don’t know if she was joking or serious. She may have hoped to marry Tom, but a proposal never came.
It’s been speculated that Rev. and Mrs. Lefroy sent him away, since he needed to marry someone with more money than the Austens had. Or Tom himself may have decided to leave, and the Lefroys were disappointed in him for flirting and not following through. Jane said Tom was “laughed at” at Ashe because of her, so it might have all been teasing, not serious. In any case, Jane does not seem to have held the outcome against Tom or against Mrs. Lefroy. After all, as she wrote in Pride and Prejudice, “Handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the plain.”
(Tom Lefroy, by the way, pursued a legal career and became a chief justice of Ireland. His son Jeffrey became a churchman, dean of Dromore Cathedral in Ireland, and Tom’s grandson George Alfred Lefroy became an Anglican clergyman and a missionary to India, then Bishop of Lahore and Calcutta. He is remembered for opposing western racism toward Indians.)
Mrs. Lefroy apparently tried to set Jane up later with another friend, the Reverend Samual Blackall, who Jane later called “a piece of . . . noisy perfection . . . which I always recollect with regard.” But nothing came of that, either.
This information sheet at Holy Trinity, Ashe, shows the former rectory, home of Mrs. Anne Lefroy, as it is today, inside and out. Double doors between the drawing room and dining room could be thrown open for parties and dances, including those Jane Austen attended. The brick façade was built by Rev. George Lefroy, who “mortgaged the living,” presumably taking out a loan on the basis of his church income, to pay for improvements to the rectory.
Pews in the Ashe church, and a churchwarden’s stave, which was used to bar the way of congregants who misbehaved.
Jane Austen’s Poem
The strongest testimony of Jane’s attachment to Mrs. Lefroy is a poem Jane wrote to her in 1808. Four years earlier, Mrs. Lefroy had been thrown from her horse and died on Jane’s birthday, December 16.
In the poem, Jane calls Mrs. Lefroy “beloved friend,” and says the reminder of her death is a “bitter pang of torturing Memory.” She describes her:
Angelic Woman! past my power to praise In Language meet, thy Talents, Temper, Mind. Thy solid Worth, thy captivating Grace! – Thou friend and ornament of Humankind! –
She says Mrs. Lefroy was unequalled, angelic, “with all her smiles benign, Her looks of eager Love, her accents sweet.” She spoke with “sense, . . . Genius, Taste, & Tenderness of soul.”
Jane also praises Mrs. Lefroy’s religious principles:
“She speaks; ’tis Eloquence–that grace of Tongue So rare, so lovely! – Never misapplied By her to palliate Vice, or deck a Wrong, She speaks and reasons but on Virtue’s side.
Hers is the Energy of Soul sincere. Her Christian Spirit, ignorant to feign, Seeks but to comfort, heal, enlighten, chear, Confer a pleasure, or prevent a pain. –
Can ought enhance such Goodness? – Yes, to me, Her partial favour from my earliest years Consummates all. – Ah! Give me yet to see Her smile of Love. – the Vision disappears.
And Jane says she hopes to meet her again in heaven.
Mrs. Lefroy as a Clergyman’s Wife
Interestingly, Jane’s tribute is similar to Mrs. Lefroy’s obituary. One section says:
“Her religion predominated over all her excellencies, and influenced and exalted every expression and action of her life. How amiable and angelic she was in the domestic duties of daughter, wife, mother, and sister, . . . She has left a chasm in society. . . . Above all, the poor will receive this afflicting dispensation of Providence with the keenest sorrow and lamentation: she fed, she cloathed, she instructed them, with daily and never-ceasing attention; in grief she soothed them by her conversation and her kind looks; and in sickness, she comforted them by medicines and advice. . . .”
Mrs. Lefroy was very attached to her children, as we see in her letters to her son Christopher Edward. They have been published by the Jane Austen Society. Mrs. Lefroy ran a school from her home. She said teaching other children helped her to not miss her own children so much when they were away at school. She taught poor children to read and write and gave them practical skills to help them support themselves.
Like most clergy wives, she was also involved in medicating her parish as needed, but she took that a huge step further. Smallpox was a great killer in those days. When Mrs. Lefroy learned about the brand-new system of vaccination, she investigated and determined it was beneficial. Then she learned to do it herself, and vaccinated her own family and over 800 poor people, giving them protection from smallpox. The obituary concludes, “Thus she seemed like a ministering Angel, going about to dispense unmingled good in the world.”
A rood screen separates the nave, where the congregation worships, from the chancel, where the altar is located. It was designed to look like the same screen that Austen would have seen in the eighteenth century church at Ashe.
Ashe Church Memorials to the Lefroy Family
While most of the Ashe church is Victorian, a number of memorials remain from Austen’s time. Her Lefroy friends are all buried there.
Memorial to Rev. Isaac Peter George Lefroy, “late Rector of this Parish and of Compton in Surry and formerly Fellow of All Souls College Oxford,” born Nov., 1745, died at the parsonage of a paralytic stroke Jan. 13, 1806; and Anne Lefroy, born March, 1749, and “died at the Parsonage House of this Parish in consequence of a fall from her horse the preceding day on Sunday December 16th 1804.”
The memorial to George and Anne Lefroy is very hard to read now, but a page in the church gives the text. The facts of their deaths are followed by:
“Reader: The characters here recorded need no laboured panegyric; prompted by the elevate dictates of Christianity, of whose glorious truths they are most firm believers, they were alike exemplary in the performance of every duty, and amicable in every relationship of life; to their fervent piety their strict integrity, their active and comprehensive charity, and in short to the lovely and useful tenor of their whole lives and conversations those amongst us who they lived, and especially the inhabitants of this parish, will bear ample and ready testimony, after a union of 26 years, having been separated by death scarcely more than 12 months, their earthy remains are together deposited in peace near this marble. Together be raised. We humbly trust in glory when the grave shall give up her dead, and death itself be swallowed up in Victory
Rev. 14 v. 13
Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord, even so saith the spirit for they rest from their labours.”
Many children died young. Memorials in the Ashe church commemorate two of the Lefroys’ children who died young, leaving their parents broken-hearted.
William Thomas Lefroy was only three years old when he “Died Alas!” as the plaque says. His brother Anthony Brydges Lefroy was fifteen when he died of an enlarged heart; they speculated it was the result of him falling from a horse two years earlier and not being bled by the doctor. Anne may have written the poem commemorating her son: “Such patient sweetness, such untainted youth, such early piety, and spotless truth; were lent a few short years to point the way; to heaven’s blessed courts, realms of endless day.” The plaque also commemorates their brother Christopher Edward, recipient of Anne’s letters, who lived to the ripe age of 71.
Memorial in Ashe church to Rev. John Henry George Lefroy, born in 1782, who succeeded his father as rector of Ashe from 1806 until his death in 1823. (He became rector at age 24, the earliest legal age to take a living.)
The memorial to their son John Henry, the next rector of Ashe, focuses a great deal on his parents, George and Anne, who apparently taught him well: [brackets added]
“Heir to the same glorious hopes, he pursued with undeviating fidelity the example of his parents, whose characters are recorded on the adjacent marble. Distrustful alike of clamourous profession [religious ‘enthusiasm’] and philosophical liberality [Deism], he daily sought, with anxious singleness of eye [focus], amidst the tumult of religious opinions, the narrow practical way of Christianity. Imbued from his infancy with the deepest reverence for the benignant [kind, good] character and divine authority of Christ, the spirit of Christianity pervaded his whole walk and conversation; in all the relations of son, brother, husband, father, as a minister, a magistrate, a man, his constant affection, his earnest benevolence, his scrupulous integrity were equally conspicuous; utterly rejecting at the same time, all presumptuous dependence on his own merits, his humble and only confidence in death, as through life, was in the one full perfect, and sufficient sacrifice of his saviour upon the cross, for the sins of the whole world. Having, thus, maintained through life, his parents character, and died in his parents faith, here, at the early age of forty one, he reposes in his parents grave, having left a widow and eleven children to cultivate the memory of his excellence, exert themselves to follow his footsteps, and deplore their irreparable loss.”
Wow! I don’t know who wrote that, but this was an impressive family.
Memorial in Ashe Church to Benjamin Lefroy, the next rector, who married Jane Austen’s niece Anna Austen, also memorialized here.
John Henry’s brother Benjamin Lefroy married Jane’s beloved niece Anna Austen (daughter of Jane’s clergyman brother James). Benjamin followed John Henry as the next rector, for only four more years until he died in 1829, age 38. A poem recalling Christ’s resurrection commemorates Ben Lefroy’s life, and the life of his wife Anna, who died near Reading in 1872, age 79.
“When by a good man’s grave I muse alone,
Methinks an angel sits upon the stone;
Like those of old on that thrice-hallowed night.
Who sate and watched in raiment heavenly bright,
And, with a voice inspiring joy, not fear,
Says, pointing upward, that he is not here.”
Holy Trinity and St. Andrew’s Church, Ashe, Today
There has been a church in Ashe since Norman times. In 1851, during the only Religious Census taken in England, the church had a seating capacity of 140. Their attendance at the morning service that Sunday was 98, and at the afternoon service, 120.
However, like many English rural parishes today, the area is now mostly farmland with only about 100 residents in the parish. About 10-15 people attend the church’s Sunday services twice a month. Of course they can attend other churches nearby on the alternate Sundays. Ashe is in a combined benefice with Steventon, Deane, and North Waltham, and they sometimes combine events with the adjoining benefice of Overton. Special services bring in more people; Ashe may fill the church with 140 worshipers at Christmas. They occasionally host weddings; special services, including one for blessing pets; and other events.
The Robin at the Ashe church. When the church was being rebuilt in the nineteenth century, a robin would come in and eat out of the workmen’s hands. It even built a nest in one of the windows. In honor of that robin, one of the carpenters carved this wooden robin, kept in a little closed vault in one wall of the church.
The church sometimes enjoys organ music from this instrument at Ashe church, which I was told is about 150 years old.
At Ashe church, Victorian stained glass windows and this 1887 painting representing baptism and the Tree of Life, add lovely touches to the walls.
Fiona Price, our guide to the church, said she and her young grandson love the peace and tranquility of the place. Holy Trinity and St. Andrew’s Church at Ashe is an interesting church to visit, near Steventon. It would have been about an hour’s walk away for Jane Austen.
The obituary is quoted from a “Provincial Newspaper” in a footnote to S.E. Bridges, “Lines to the Memory of Mrs. Lefroy,” in The Poetical Register, 1805 (London: Rivington, 1807): 67–68.
Further Resources
The Letters of Mrs. Lefroy, edited by Helen Lefroy and Gavin Turner, published by the Jane Austen Society (U.K.) This is hard to get hold of in the US, though I found it through Inter-Library Loan. I thought it gave the best insights into Mrs. Lefroy, her character, thoughts, and life.
Note: Inquiring readers, due to a busy schedule, I have updated this blog post from 2012 that discussed carpet cleaning. During this time of year, fresh air enters my open windows, while my furniture, windows, and carpets receive a thorough cleaning until everything looks and smells fresh. I’ve made a few changes to the original post by switching a link to a history of carpet cleaning to a safer site, as well as making minor edits.
The screen capture below depicts a scene in Sense and Sensibility in which Elinor Dashwood, using a carpet beater made of cane, beats a carpet hung outside.
Sense and Sensibility 2008
Some carpets were fitted and hard to remove. In such instances, druggets, or hard-wearing canvas cloths, came to the rescue.
The Young Trio, by E.V. Rippingille, 1829. Image @Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery.
One of the most common strategies of keeping carpets clean in the early nineteenth century was to use druggets, heavy woolen goods spread under tables to protect carpet from spills. They are sometimes called crumb cloths. In addition to dining rooms they were used in other areas of heavy wear. E.V. Rippingille painted The Young Trio in 1829 showing a drugget protecting carpet in a parlor where children are at play. – Historic Carpet Cleaning Methods in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, Edited by John Burrows, J.R. Burrows and Company (this link is not an https.)
You can clearly see the drugget underneath the table in this classic print.
The Dinner-Locust; or Advantages of a Keen Scent’, Charles Hunt after E. F. Lambert, c.1823; hand coloured etching and aquatint. Image @The Geffrye Museum of the Home
A maid shakes a small carpet or a drugget from a second story window, as well as some trousers. If I recall, one of the actors walked through the door below her as she shook the cloth. Such scenes must have been common in Austen’s day. Sense and Sensibility, 1996.
As we continue our month-by-month journey through Jane Austen’s novels, letters, and lifetime, we find ourselves in the lovely month of April! If you’re just jumping on the bus, you can find previous articles in my “A Year in Jane Austen’s World” series here: January, February, and March.
Let’s see what we find as we explore April in Jane Austen’s World! First up, our monthly view of Chawton House and Gardens, where the tulips are beginning to bloom!
April is when everything starts to come back to life and bloom in Hampshire. The trees boast new leaves, the roads and lanes are lined with green, and flowers and trees are in blossom. The weather ranges from cloudy to partly cloudy to partly sunny to rainy.
Why talk about the flowers and the weather? Because it’s fun to picture some of the details about Hampshire that Austen loved and that we can still enjoy today!
The badness of the weather disconcerted an excellent plan of mine,—that of calling on Miss Beckford again; but from the middle of the day it rained incessantly.
Letter to Cassandra, Sloane St., Thursday (April 18, 1811)
Your lilacs are in leaf, ours are in bloom. The horse-chestnuts are quite out, and the elms almost. I had a pleasant walk in Kensington Gardens on Sunday with Henry, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Tilson; everything was fresh and beautiful.
Letter to Cassandra, Sloane St., Thursday (April 25, 1811)
Here is a glimpse of Jane Austen’s House Museum this month. The garden is looking absolutely lovely already!
We have two letters from April 1811 when Jane was staying with her brother in Sloane Street in London. The following are a few excerpts of special interest:
Her spring shopping purchases: “I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant, and spending all my money, and, what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too; for in a linendraper’s shop to which I went for checked muslin, and for which I was obliged to give seven shillings a yard, I was tempted by a pretty-coloured muslin, and bought ten yards of it on the chance of your liking it; but, at the same time, if it should not suit you, you must not think yourself at all obliged to take it; it is only 3s. 6d. per yard, and I should not in the least mind keeping the whole. In texture it is just what we prefer, but its resemblance to green crewels, I must own, is not great, for the pattern is a small red spot. And now I believe I have done all my commissions except Wedgwood.”
More walking and shopping: “I liked my walk very much; it was shorter than I had expected, and the weather was delightful. We set off immediately after breakfast, and must have reached Grafton House by half-past 11; but when we entered the shop the whole counter was thronged, and we waited full half an hour before we could be attended to. When we were served, however, I was very well satisfied with my purchases — my bugle trimming at 2s. 4d. and three pair silk stockings for a little less than 12s. a pair.”
News about their brothers and their careers in the Navy: “Frank is superseded in the ‘Caledonia.’ Henry brought us this news yesterday from Mr. Daysh, and he heard at the same time that Charles may be in England in the course of a month. Sir Edward Pollen succeeds Lord Gambier in his command, and some captain of his succeeds Frank; and I believe the order is already gone out. Henry means to inquire farther to-day. He wrote to Mary on the occasion. This is something to think of. Henry is convinced that he will have the offer of something else, but does not think it will be at all incumbent on him to accept it; and then follows, what will he do? and where will he live?”
The HMS Caledonia was a 120-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 25 June 1808 at Plymouth. Wikipedia.
Austen’s progress with and thoughts about Sense and Sensibility: “No, indeed, I am never too busy to think of S. and S. I can no more forget it than a mother can forget her sucking child; and I am much obliged to you for your inquiries. I have had two sheets to correct, but the last only brings us to Willoughby’s first appearance. Mrs. K. regrets in the most flattering manner that she must wait till May, but I have scarcely a hope of its being out in June. Henry does not neglect it; he has hurried the printer, and says he will see him again to-day. It will not stand still during his absence, it will be sent to Eliza.”
Plenty of wonderful details about a party hosted by Henry and Eliza: “Including everybody we were sixty-six — which was considerably more than Eliza had expected, and quite enough to fill the back drawing-room and leave a few to be scattered about in the other and in the passage.”
“The music was extremely good. It opened (tell Fanny) with ‘Poike de Parp pirs praise pof Prapela’; and of the other glees I remember, ‘In peace love tunes,’ ‘Rosabelle,’ ‘The Red Cross Knight,’ and ‘Poor Insect.’ Between the songs were lessons on the harp, or harp and pianoforte together; and the harp-player was Wiepart, whose name seems famous, though new to me. There was one female singer, a short Miss Davis, all in blue, bringing up for the public line, whose voice was said to be very fine indeed; and all the performers gave great satisfaction by doing what they were paid for, and giving themselves no airs. No amateur could be persuaded to do anything.”
“The house was not clear till after twelve. If you wish to hear more of it, you must put your questions, but I seem rather to have exhausted than spared the subject.”
The following are a collection of interesting details and scenes that occur in (or refer to) the month of April in Austen’s novels. Springtime appears to be a good time for travel, walking, and riding as the weather slowly improves:
Sense and Sensibility
The Palmers, Mrs. Jennings, and the Dashwood sisters leave London for Cleveland in April (for the Easter holidays): “Very early in April, and tolerably early in the day, the two parties from Hanover Square and Berkeley Street set out from their respective homes, to meet, by appointment, on the road. For the convenience of Charlotte and her child, they were to be more than two days on their journey, and Mr. Palmer, travelling more expeditiously with Colonel Brandon, was to join them at Cleveland soon after their arrival.”
Pride and Prejudice
Darcy proposes again and refers to his first April proposal to Elizabeth Bennet (he surely remembers that date VERY well): “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”
Mansfield Park
Fanny is left without fitting exercise: “[The Miss Bertrams] took their cheerful rides in the fine mornings of April and May; and Fanny either sat at home the whole day with one aunt, or walked beyond her strength at the instigation of the other: Lady Bertram holding exercise to be as unnecessary for everybody as it was unpleasant to herself; and Mrs. Norris, who was walking all day, thinking everybody ought to walk as much.”
Sir Thomas’s letter home: “[Sir Thomas] wrote in April, and had strong hopes of settling everything to his entire satisfaction, and leaving Antigua before the end of the summer.”
Fanny Price in Portsmouth: “The end of April was coming on; it would soon be almost three months, instead of two, that she had been absent from them all, and that her days had been passing in a state of penance, which she loved them too well to hope they would thoroughly understand; and who could yet say when there might be leisure to think of or fetch her?”
Fanny’s thoughts on springtime in the countryside versus the congested town: “It was sad to Fanny to lose all the pleasures of spring. She had not known before what pleasures she had to lose in passing March and April in a town. She had not known before how much the beginnings and progress of vegetation had delighted her. What animation, both of body and mind, she had derived from watching the advance of that season which cannot, in spite of its capriciousness, be unlovely, and seeing its increasing beauties from the earliest flowers in the warmest divisions of her aunt’s garden, to the opening of leaves of her uncle’s plantations, and the glory of his woods. To be losing such pleasures was no trifle; to be losing them, because she was in the midst of closeness and noise, to have confinement, bad air, bad smells, substituted for liberty, freshness, fragrance, and verdure, was infinitely worse: but even these incitements to regret were feeble, compared with what arose from the conviction of being missed by her best friends, and the longing to be useful to those who were wanting her!
Northanger Abbey
Isabella writes a “very unexpected letter” to Catherine.
Emma
Mrs. Elton pressures Jane to find a position as a governess very soon so that she doesn’t miss her chance: “But, my dear child, the time is drawing near; here is April, and June, or say even July, is very near, with such business to accomplish before us. Your inexperience really amuses me! A situation such as you deserve, and your friends would require for you, is no everyday occurrence, is not obtained at a moment’s notice; indeed, indeed, we must begin inquiring directly.”
For the introverts among us: “John Knightley only was in mute astonishment.—That a man (Mr. Weston) who might have spent his evening quietly at home after a day of business in London, should set off again, and walk half a mile to another man’s house, for the sake of being in mixed company till bed-time, of finishing his day in the efforts of civility and the noise of numbers, was a circumstance to strike him deeply. A man who had been in motion since eight o’clock in the morning, and might now have been still, who had been long talking, and might have been silent, who had been in more than one crowd, and might have been alone!—Such a man, to quit the tranquillity and independence of his own fireside, and on the evening of a cold sleety April day rush out again into the world!“
Mrs. Elton and Jane Fairfax in Emma (1996).
April Dates of Importance
This brings us now to several dates that would have been important to Austen personally and to the Austen family as a whole:
Family News:
26 April 1764: Rev. George Austen marries Cassandra Leigh.
23 April 1774: Francis (Frank) Austen (Jane’s brother) born at Steventon.
April 1786: Francis Austen enters the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth
15 April 1793: James Austen’s first child, Anna, is born.
Historic Dates:
19 April 1775: The Battle of Lexington marks the start of America’s Revolutionary War.
Writing:
April 1811: Austen continues to correct proofs of Sense and Sensibility. She anticipates its publication date.
Sorrows:
22 April 1813: Eliza de Feuillide (Austen’s cousin and, later, sister-in-law) ill. Jane Austen goes to her bedside in London to help attend to her.
25 April 1813: Eliza de Feuillide dies.
27 April 1817: Austen drafts her will:
“I Jane Austen of the Parish of Chawton do by this my last Will & Testament give and bequeath to my dearest Sister Cassandra Elizth everything of which I may die possessed, or which may be hereafter due to me, subject to the payment of my Funeral Expences, & to a Legacy of £50. to my Brother Henry, & £50. to Mde Bigeon–which I request may be paid as soon as convenient. And I appoint my said dear Sister the Executrix of this my last Will & Testament.”
As we continue through the year, one of the highlights for me has been surveying the photos of the gardens at Chawton House and Jane Austen’s House each month and seeing the changes therein. I hope these April showers will bring many beautiful May flowers next month as we continue our tour of Hampshire in the spring with May in Jane Austen’s World!
Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen's England is now available! By JAW contributor Brenda S. Cox. See Review. Available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.
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The Obituary of Charlotte Collins by Andrew Capes
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