Jane Austen in 41 Objects
Jane Austen in 41 Objects
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Publisher: Bodleian Library
ISBN: 9781851246267
Number of Pages: 224
Published: 13/03/2025
Width: 16.1 cm
Height: 21 cm
More than 200 years after Jane Austen’s death at the age of just forty-one, we are still looking for clues about this extraordinary writer’s life. What might we learn if we take a glimpse inside the biographies of objects that crossed her path in life and afterwards – things that she cherished or cast aside, or that furnished the world in which she moved, or that have themselves been inspired by her legacy?
Among objects described in this book are a teenage notebook, a muslin shawl, a wallpaper fragment, a tea caddy, the theatrical poster for a play she attended and the dining-room grate at Chawton Cottage where she lived. Poignantly, the last manuscript page of her unfinished novel and a lock of hair kept by her devoted sister, Cassandra, are also featured. Objects contributing to Jane Austen’s rich cultural legacy include a dinner plate decorated by Bloomsbury artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Grayson Perry’s commemorative pot from 2009 and Mr Darcy’s wet shirt, worn by Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC adaptation.
This is a different kind of biography, in which objects with their own histories offer shifting entry points into Jane Austen’s life. Each object – illustrated in colour – invites us to meet Jane Austen at a particular moment when her life intersects with theirs, speaking eloquently of past lives and shedding new light on one of our best-loved authors.
Contents
Acknowledgements
A chronology of Jane Austen
Introduction: A life in objects
Jane Austen: A life in objects
1 Portrait of Jane Austen, c. 1810
2 Mrs Austen to Mrs Walter, 20 August 1775
3 The Revd George Austen’s bookcase
4 ‘Volume the First’
5 Marianne Knight’s dancing slippers
6 Marriage register, St Nicholas Church, Steventon
7 Betsy Hancock/Eliza de Feuillide
8 ‘Juvenile Songs & Lessons’: Jane Austen’s music book
9 A muslin shawl
10 The trial of Mrs Leigh Perrot
11 Silhouette of Cassandra Elizabeth Austen
12 A flower spray
13 Frances Burney, Camilla, 1796
14 A letter, 26–27 May 1801
15 Portrait of Jane Austen, 1804
16 Wallpaper fragment
17 Martha Lloyd’s Household Book
18 Austen family quilt
19 Jane Austen’s writing table
20 Four Wedgwood serving dishes
21 Theatre bill for The Clandestine Marriage, Covent Garden, 1813 104
22 Front door, 50 Albemarle Street, London
23 Emma, the Windsor Castle copy
24 A life in banknotes
25 Jane Austen’s pelisse
26 The Octagon Room, Bath
27 The donkey carriage
28 A lock of hair
29 Dining-room grate
30 A sermon scrap
31 Caroline Austen, ‘My Aunt Jane Austen’, 1867
32 The Cobb, Lyme Regis, Dorset
33 Chris Hammond, illustration for Sense and Sensibility, 1899
34 Memorial window, Winchester Cathedral
35 Danish translation of Pride and Prejudice, 1904
36 Jane Austen plate, Charleston, 1932–34
37 Rex Whistler’s costume designs for Pride and Prejudice, 1936
38 Mr Darcy’s shirt
39 A tea caddy
40 Grayson Perry, ‘Jane Austen in e17’, 2009
41 Last words
Notes
Further reading
Image credits
Index
