George Austen, Letter to Thomas Cadell (Steventon, Hampshire, 1797). Jane Austen, Five Letters to Anna Austen (England, 1814)
“We have been very much amused by your books, but I have a good many Criticisms to make.“
In 1939 and 1940, descendants of Jane’s niece Anna Lefroy (formerly Austen) donated six Austen letters to the College. These include five letters written by Jane in 1814 and an earlier letter of 1797 in which George Austen offered the manuscript of First Impressions—later published as Pride and Prejudice—to the London publisher Thomas Cadell. The submission was declined ‘by return of post’, marking an early setback in Jane Austen’s long path to publication.
Jane’s letters were written at the peak of her career. They show her advising and encouraging her niece in her literary ambitions, alongside domestic and family news. The letters give a sense of her confidence in her authorial identity; her status as a writer becomes an inherent part of her general correspondence with her niece. In short, the letters provide insights both into Jane’s career as a writer and the ways in which members of her family engaged with it.
St John’s College has close ties to the Austen family. Jane Austen’s father, George Austen, was a fellow of the College for seventeen years, and two of her brothers, Henry Austen and James Austen, also studied at St John’s. The brothers’ admission was facilitated through the Founder’s Kin route, via their mother Cassandra Leigh, a descendant of Thomas White. It is also possible that the College played a role in George Austen’s acquaintance with Cassandra, as her brother was studying at St John’s during the period of George’s affiliation. We would certainly like to think so.
A full digitization of all Austen letters is available at the Digital Bodleian. Find out more about the letters in this blog post and about the Austen’s link to St John’s College in this article.