A Memoir of Jane Austen

ting claiming that fame was not the goal for Jane. She wrote her novels just because she wanted to express her thoughts and ideas, to reveal her rich imagination. This book is not trying to reveal as much as it can about Jane Austin´s life. For example, her relatives did not want to record her romantic relationship considering this to be her private life. However, A Memoir of Jane Austen remains the most full biography of hers. It is recommended to everyone who is fond of her novels and have read them thoroughly already and to everyone who is just starting to discover a remarkable world of her stories. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Early Compositions?Friends at Ashe?A very old Letter?tines on tie Death of Mrs. Lefroy?Observations on Jane Austen's Letter-writing Letters. I KNOW little of Jane Austen's childhood. Her mother followed a custom, not unusual in those days, though it seems strange to us, of putting out her babies to be nursed in a cottage in the village. The infant was daily visited by one or both of its parents, and frequently brought to them at the parsonage, but the cottage was its home, and must have remained so till it was old enough to run about and talk; for I know that one of them, in after life, used to speak of his foster mother as ' Movie,' the name by which he had called her in his infancy. It may be that the contrast between the parsonage house and the best class of cottages was not quite so extreme then as it would be now, that the one was somewhat less luxuri- ous, and the other less squalid. It would certainly seem from the results that it was a wholesome and invigorating system, for the children were all strong and healthy. Jane was probably treated like the rest in this respect In childhood every available oppor- tunity of Instruction was made use of. According to the ideas of the time, she was well educated, though not highly accomplished, and she certainly enjoyed that important element of mental training, associating at home with persons of cultivated intellect It cannot be doubted that her early years were bright and happy, living, as she did, with indulgent parents, in a cheerful home, not without agreeable variety of society. To these sources of enjoyment must be added the first stirrings of talent within her, and the absorbing interest of original composition. It is impossible to say at how early an age she began to write.