CHAPTER 2
Watching and Listening

Jane was glad to be back home. Once again she had the freedom to take long walks in the countryside. Steventon was a lot less noisy and busy than either Southampton or Reading had been. But Jane enjoyed the buzz and activity in her family’s home. She joined in when her father’s students put on skits. She also decided to start writing.

Over Christmastime in 1786, Jane’s cousin Eliza Hancock, who was fourteen years older than Jane, visited the Austens. Eliza was the beautiful daughter of Reverend Austen’s sister, Philadelphia. Eliza was married to a French count, which made her a countess. Her stories of life in France dazzled Jane. Eliza loved music and drama, and she joined the funny shows that the family put on. Jane thought Eliza was like a character from the novels on her father’s bookshelves.

Eliza visited the Austens again at the end of 1787. She continued to fascinate twelve-year-old Jane with her stories about life in France and the famous people she had met. Eliza also rented a piano so that the Austens could play music and dance at home. She gave Jane books in French and encouraged her to learn the language.

Eliza’s exciting life inspired Jane to write even more stories. Most of them were about thieves, murderers, or people who had no common sense. Many of her characters escaped ridiculous situations or horrible accidents. Jane always read her humorous stories aloud to her family.

Frances “Fanny” Burney

Jane’s early writing sometimes made fun of novels that were popular at the time. Jane felt that many of the female characters in these novels were too silly or sentimental. She didn’t like to read novels about women who were worried about only one thing: finding a rich husband. The women that Jane knew were all strong and independent. She felt that couples should marry because they were in love, not to increase the size of their bank accounts.

One of the most popular novels, which Jane did like, was called Cecilia by Fanny Burney. In the book, the main character, Cecilia Beverley, is told that she must marry a man who agrees to take her last name, rather than change her own name after marriage. This causes all kinds of confusion among Cecilia’s family and friends.

The idea of a man using his wife’s last name was simply ridiculous in the 1780s. It was not an easy task, and Cecilia’s inheritance depended on it. Cecilia ended up losing most of her money. Near the end of the story, one of the characters says, “The whole of this unfortunate business . . . has been the result of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.” This meant that people sometimes make unfortunate decisions based on keeping up appearances and always following the rules.

The Modern Novel

Today, over sixty thousand novels—long fictional stories—are published in the United States every year. But in the 1800s, this kind of book wasn’t very common. Up until this time, books were mostly about history, religion, or mythology. They were often written in poetic verse, such as the Odyssey by Homer and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Novels that became popular in England at this time were tales of adventure, often in far-off places. They were written in a style that was easy to read and understand. Two of the most popular were Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding.

Jane already had plenty of people and things to write about. But in 1788, when she was thirteen years old, Jane and her family visited relatives in London. The exciting sights and sounds of England’s largest city captured her imagination. Jane came home with lots of ideas for new stories. She called one of them Love and Freindship (Jane spelled it incorrectly). Jane dedicated it to her cousin Eliza. The story is full of carriage crashes, robberies, and eloping couples. Jane was making fun of the romantic novels that were being published at the time. She laughed at the women in novels who had very little common sense. Her two main characters in Love and Freindship, Laura and Sophia, were always fainting.

Jane wrote her work in three different notebooks. They are called the Juvenilia, meaning stories from her youth. They contain stories, dramatic scenes, and an original history of England, which Cassandra illustrated. Jane’s writing, and her cherished notebooks, were very important to her. Even though some of her stories were funny and at times even silly, Jane was taking her work seriously.