TWO new exhibitions at a famous author’s home will reveal newly acquired letters from the historical figure.
Jane Austen’s House, the writer’s home for the last eight years of her life, will display two newly obtained letters for the first time within the museum’s new Autumn exhibitions.
The Hampshire cottage, was where Austen lived, wrote and published her novels and will now be home to letters written by the author herself that reveal her young love life and may have inspired the writer's novels.
The two new exhibitions featuring the letters, Jane Austen in Love and Jane Austen in London will run from September 8 through to March 5, 2023 at the museum in Chawton.
Lizzie Dunford, director at Jane Austen’s House said: “We’re delighted to share these fabulous new letters with our visitors, as part of two distinct but equally fascinating exhibitions. They are windows into Jane’s life when she was a lively 20-year-old, enjoying balls and flirtations, and again when she is a mature woman of 37, enjoying London’s shops and theatres.”
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Jane Austen in Love explores the 18th and 19th century novelist’s relationship with Tom Lefroy, a handsome young Irishman, when they were both just twenty years old. Soon after the pair met, Jane began writing First Impressions (later published as Pride and Prejudice) and created the character of Mr Darcy, a renowned romantic hero.
The exhibition features the letter where Jane told her sister Cassandra: “I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy” alongside Mr Lefroy’s portrait by George Engleheart, which is on private loan from Judy and Brian Harden. The exhibition will also include costumes worn by famous actors Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy in the film Becoming Jane (2007).
Sophie Reynolds, curator at Jane Austen’s House said: “It’s thrilling to show Tom Lefroy’s portrait alongside the very letter in which Jane Austen tells her sister she is going to ‘dance her last’ with him. It’s a bright, sparkling letter that could have been written by Lizzy Bennet herself.”
Meanwhile, Jane Austen in London centres around a letter written from Jane to Cassandra on September 15-16, 1813. The long, chatty letter from their brother Henry’s house in Henrietta Street, reveals the details of Jane’s everyday life, from shopping trips and visits to the theatre, to a hair appointment and a painful trip to the dentist. Although a Hampshire girl, Miss Austen enjoyed the city luxuries of visiting London.
Letters 2 and 87, as they are known in Deirdre LeFaye’s Standard Edition of Jane Austen’s Letters, are co-owned with The Bodleian Libraries and are part of the Blavatnik-Honresfield Library, a collection of manuscripts, letters and printed books collected from the late 19th Century by industrialists William and Alfred Law. The library was saved, following a campaign to prevent its sale and then purchased by the Friends of the National Libraries (FNL). The charity donated every manuscript and printed book to writers’ houses and libraries across the UK, including the local Austen museum.
The two exhibitions held from September 8, 2022, to March 5, 2023 are free with house entry. An online version of each exhibition will also be available from September 8 on the Museum website. For more go to janeaustens.house/.
Jane moved to the Hampshire cottage in 1809 with her mother, sister Cassandra and friend Martha Lloyd. The 17th century property was owned by elder brother Edward Chawton who became wealthy and inherited the Chawton Estate. In May 1817, a 42-year-old Jane left the village for medical treatment in Winchester, where she died two months later on July 18, 1817.
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The novelist’s mother and sister continued to live at the cottage for the rest of their lives. In 1949 the home became a museum and was opened to the public, following an appeal led by the Jane Austen Society.
It was at the house in Chawton, that the author published all her major works including: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. The cottage is the only location where Jane Austen lived and wrote that is open to the public. As well as letters the museum is home to a collection of items associated to Jane such as her jewellery and the table where she would write.
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