Jane Austen - Behind Closed Door For Settings Of Her Novels | Lucy Worsley Documentary

00:58:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUrOf15q7bk

Sintesi

TLDRThe narrative traces Jane Austen's life, focusing on her experiences with her family, the role of various homes in shaping her as a writer, and the societal dynamics she navigated in 18th century England. From her initial stay at Stonely Abbey amidst potential inheritance claims to her formative years at Steventon Rectory, the film highlights how her surroundings and personal interactions influenced themes in her novels, notably wealth, social class, and romance. The journey explores her struggles in Bath and the career trajectory that followed, including moments of triumph in becoming a beloved author, yet punctuated by financial difficulties and ultimate illness, culminating in her serene passing, hinting at the irony of her posthumous fame.

Punti di forza

  • 📜 In 1806, Jane Austen visited Stonely Abbey amidst a family drama over inheritance.
  • 🏰 Stonely Abbey inspired several settings in Austen's novels, linking her life to her work.
  • 👪 Jane grew up in a large, bustling rectory, providing rich material for her writing.
  • 🎼 Music was a significant part of Austen's social life, connecting women through shared activities.
  • 🏙️ Bath represented a challenging yet pivotal chapter in Austen's life, impacting her literary career.
  • 📚 Despite early successes, Jane struggled with financial independence and the pressures of societal expectations.

Linea temporale

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    In August 1806, Jane Austen, alongside her family, embarks on a journey to Stonely Abbey for a family inheritance dispute, mirroring the themes of money and marriage central to her novels. At 30, she arrives unmarried and unpublished, seeking not only an inheritance but inspiration for her writing.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Stonely Abbey's looming legacy proves influential in Jane's work, as elements of the estate appear in her novels like 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Mansfield Park.' Her personal experiences of wealth and poverty shape her understanding of society and the themes explored in her writing.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    As Jane travels through her life, she reflects on her time in different homes where her status influenced her experiences. She navigates romantic adventures and social obligations, revealing a deeply personal connection to each place she lived.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Jane Austen's formative years in Hampshire, where she lived in Steventon Rectory under the care of her father, a rector, provided her with a unique upbringing that influenced her writing. Despite their gentlemanly status, the family often faced financial struggles.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Excavations at the site of Jane's childhood home reveal insights about her upbringing. The rectory was lively but also crowded, with her father's multiple jobs supporting the family, and Jane developed her literary talents in this bustling environment.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Jane's early exposure to literature in her father's library set her on a path as a writer. She was quite prolific, penning plays and novels, influenced heavily by the vibrant but constrained domestic life that characterized her youth.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Austen's father realized her potential as a writer and gifted her a mahogany writing desk on her 19th birthday. This desk symbolized her literary aspirations and became a constant in her travels as she sought inspiration.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Walking became a passion for Jane, allowing her social interactions with friends, with music playing an important role in her social life. Jane's involvement in music and dancing intersected with her narrative voice in her novels.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    At a ball in 1796, Jane met Tom Lefroy, leading to a flirtation that inspired her early romantic interests. However, the relationship faced societal pressures that ultimately resulted in an unfeasible love story, mirroring her novels' themes.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:50:00

    Jane's life journey reflects a stark contrast when moving to family homes in Bath, where she faced new societal pressures, including marriage prospects amid her literary ambitions. Despite proposals, Jane held fast to her independence, prioritizing her writing over social expectations.

  • 00:50:00 - 00:58:39

    After significant trials, including her father's death, Jane's resilience as a writer led to her eventual publication of novels like 'Sense and Sensibility,' granting her financial stability, hence, her focus on rewriting and further exploring her creative potential in later life.

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Video Domande e Risposte

  • What family event led Jane Austen to Stonely Abbey?

    Jane Austen traveled to Stonely Abbey for the inheritance claims following the death of her cousin Mary Lee.

  • How did Stonely Abbey influence Jane Austen's writing?

    The fragments of Stonely Abbey inspired settings in her novels, notably in 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Mansfield Park'.

  • What was Jane Austen's living situation like growing up?

    Jane Austen grew up in a crowded rectory with her parents, sisters, and brothers, providing a bustling yet low-income environment.

  • What was the significance of music in Jane Austen's social life?

    Music played a critical role in social interactions among women, fostering communication and enjoyment during gatherings.

  • What impact did Bath have on Jane Austen's life?

    Moving to Bath at age 25, Jane faced social pressures and challenges as she sought to secure her future while adjusting to urban life.

  • How did Jane Austen's publications affect her financial situation?

    Though initially successful with her novels, Austen faced poor financial returns on later works, struggling even after fame.

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Scorrimento automatico:
  • 00:00:00
    [Music]
  • 00:00:05
    august 1806
  • 00:00:08
    jane austen found herself squeezed
  • 00:00:10
    alongside her mother her sister and a
  • 00:00:13
    lawyer rushing into warwickshire in her
  • 00:00:16
    cousin's carriage
  • 00:00:19
    it's like a scene from one of jane's own
  • 00:00:21
    stories
  • 00:00:22
    she was full of expectation about to
  • 00:00:25
    play her part in a real life austin
  • 00:00:28
    family drama
  • 00:00:30
    jane's destination was the ancestral
  • 00:00:33
    home of the lee family
  • 00:00:35
    [Music]
  • 00:00:36
    it was stonely abbey
  • 00:00:40
    it's a story about money and inheritance
  • 00:00:43
    and marriage the very things at the core
  • 00:00:47
    of jane's novels
  • 00:00:49
    the honorable mary lee reclusive
  • 00:00:52
    mistress of the house had just died
  • 00:00:55
    unmarried and childless who was going to
  • 00:00:58
    get the house and the cash
  • 00:01:00
    jane's elderly cousin one of the
  • 00:01:02
    possible heirs rushed over to stake his
  • 00:01:05
    claim bringing the austins along for
  • 00:01:08
    support
  • 00:01:09
    when jane arrived here she was 30 years
  • 00:01:12
    old she was unmarried and unpublished
  • 00:01:15
    despite her best efforts and she was
  • 00:01:18
    homeless she'd just been forced out of
  • 00:01:20
    the city of bath through lack of funds
  • 00:01:23
    she was really hoping that some of the
  • 00:01:25
    riches of this place would come in her
  • 00:01:27
    direction she needed an inheritance
  • 00:01:32
    but for jane the aspiring novelist
  • 00:01:35
    stoney abbey also promised bounty of
  • 00:01:37
    another sort
  • 00:01:39
    inspiration
  • 00:01:41
    fragments of the abbey made their way
  • 00:01:43
    into her books
  • 00:01:45
    in pride and prejudice elizabeth bennett
  • 00:01:48
    is shown around pemberley by the
  • 00:01:49
    housekeeper just as jane was shown
  • 00:01:52
    around stonely
  • 00:01:54
    and mansfield park gained stoney abbey's
  • 00:01:57
    chapel
  • 00:02:00
    and the crimson velvet cushions
  • 00:02:01
    appearing over the ledge of the family
  • 00:02:03
    gallery above
  • 00:02:06
    in the end jane went away without an
  • 00:02:08
    inheritance but stony abbey left its
  • 00:02:12
    legacy in her work
  • 00:02:17
    [Music]
  • 00:02:23
    jane austen's novels revolve around
  • 00:02:25
    homes lost and mansions gained the
  • 00:02:28
    threat of poverty
  • 00:02:30
    and the promise of wealth
  • 00:02:32
    and jane's own life gave her a unique
  • 00:02:35
    insight
  • 00:02:37
    in her 41 years she stayed in many
  • 00:02:40
    houses
  • 00:02:41
    at times she was tantalizingly close to
  • 00:02:44
    riches
  • 00:02:45
    at others a step from destitution
  • 00:02:49
    i'm going to follow where jane stayed
  • 00:02:52
    i'll visit the scenes of her romantic
  • 00:02:54
    adventures
  • 00:02:56
    and see where she struggled with her
  • 00:02:57
    social obligations
  • 00:03:00
    this is the parlor or withdrawing room
  • 00:03:02
    where the women would come after dinner
  • 00:03:04
    [Music]
  • 00:03:05
    i'll try out some home economics austin
  • 00:03:08
    style amazingly that does look like real
  • 00:03:11
    ink and explore the houses where she
  • 00:03:14
    flourished as a writer
  • 00:03:18
    i think that knowing where jane lived
  • 00:03:21
    can tell us who jane really was
  • 00:03:33
    [Music]
  • 00:03:40
    i'm traveling to where it all began for
  • 00:03:42
    jane
  • 00:03:44
    hampshire
  • 00:03:46
    in 18th century england your prospects
  • 00:03:50
    for wealth and security were typically
  • 00:03:52
    set from the moment of your birth
  • 00:03:56
    but jane austen wasn't raised in a
  • 00:03:59
    typical home
  • 00:04:03
    jane spent 25 years more than half of
  • 00:04:06
    her life
  • 00:04:07
    living in the house where she was born
  • 00:04:10
    let's go and see what's left of it
  • 00:04:17
    jane grew up in the sleepy village of
  • 00:04:20
    steventon where her father was rector at
  • 00:04:23
    the local church
  • 00:04:26
    she was born in 1775 in the reign of
  • 00:04:30
    george iii
  • 00:04:31
    [Music]
  • 00:04:34
    the austins were a bit unusual in that
  • 00:04:36
    jane's father was considered to be a
  • 00:04:38
    gentleman
  • 00:04:40
    but the family still struggled on
  • 00:04:42
    unlimited income
  • 00:04:46
    [Music]
  • 00:04:51
    the stephenton that jane knew has almost
  • 00:04:53
    vanished
  • 00:04:56
    its cottages were demolished in the 19th
  • 00:04:58
    century
  • 00:05:00
    [Music]
  • 00:05:04
    jane's home the rectory she shared with
  • 00:05:06
    her parents sister and six brothers has
  • 00:05:10
    gone too
  • 00:05:11
    but luckily for me archaeologist debbie
  • 00:05:14
    charlton has been investigating the site
  • 00:05:17
    and building up a picture of jane's
  • 00:05:19
    first home
  • 00:05:21
    so debbie let's pace out the planet
  • 00:05:24
    directory and find out roughly where it
  • 00:05:26
    was
  • 00:05:26
    right so we're at the front
  • 00:05:29
    which was north facing
  • 00:05:32
    so if you were to stay about there this
  • 00:05:34
    is the corner of the building in the
  • 00:05:36
    west it goes off like that yes okay and
  • 00:05:38
    how far that way does it go i'll just
  • 00:05:40
    try and walk over there
  • 00:05:47
    hey
  • 00:05:48
    so that's the other corner that is yes
  • 00:05:51
    where's the front door is it in the
  • 00:05:52
    middle it's in the middle meet you there
  • 00:05:54
    okay then
  • 00:06:00
    is this it this is it let me
  • 00:06:03
    open it
  • 00:06:04
    up is that right yes it did let's step
  • 00:06:07
    inside here we go
  • 00:06:09
    where are we now we've come into the
  • 00:06:10
    lobby it was a lobby entry house what
  • 00:06:13
    were the other rooms you had the front
  • 00:06:15
    kitchen and then you had the bat kitchen
  • 00:06:17
    the back kitchen's where all the work
  • 00:06:18
    went on all the cooking what about over
  • 00:06:20
    here over here you've got the main
  • 00:06:21
    parlour so you'd have the dining parlor
  • 00:06:23
    and then the sitting part
  • 00:06:25
    what about mr austin's study
  • 00:06:28
    that was at the back so he was looking
  • 00:06:30
    out over the cucumber gardens yeah over
  • 00:06:32
    the gardens there is that because he was
  • 00:06:34
    hiding away yeah he was he was hiding
  • 00:06:36
    away from the rest of the household oh
  • 00:06:38
    okay lots of kids
  • 00:06:40
    need a lot of activity you need
  • 00:06:41
    somewhere to go if you've got eight
  • 00:06:43
    children you did yeah i think it was a
  • 00:06:45
    very busy house a lot going on
  • 00:06:51
    it may seem like a big house but it was
  • 00:06:54
    crowded
  • 00:06:55
    jane's father supplemented his income by
  • 00:06:58
    running a boy's boarding school so the
  • 00:07:00
    rectory was also packed with his pupils
  • 00:07:04
    mr austin even had a third job as a
  • 00:07:06
    farmer and the family kept cows ducks
  • 00:07:10
    and chickens
  • 00:07:12
    davey i imagine a lot of people would
  • 00:07:13
    think of jane austen growing up in some
  • 00:07:15
    lovely country house situation but
  • 00:07:17
    that's not right is it no no i think she
  • 00:07:20
    was definitely doing a bit of work on
  • 00:07:22
    the farm there is an instance where
  • 00:07:24
    she's
  • 00:07:25
    overjoyed that the new dairy maids
  • 00:07:27
    arrived which gives you an impression
  • 00:07:29
    she was probably having to do it until
  • 00:07:31
    that point yeah
  • 00:07:33
    now tell me tell me about some of these
  • 00:07:34
    little little finds that you've
  • 00:07:36
    excavated
  • 00:07:37
    right so obviously when you're doing the
  • 00:07:39
    exhibitions a lot of it is the rubbish
  • 00:07:41
    what's been discarded or breaking
  • 00:07:43
    so we built this back together
  • 00:07:46
    but it's a lovely little leg cap
  • 00:07:48
    and it's um
  • 00:07:50
    it's beautiful so this is the willow
  • 00:07:52
    pattern
  • 00:07:53
    so it's blue and white transfer wear yes
  • 00:07:56
    they've just come out they just learned
  • 00:07:58
    to do the transfer print
  • 00:08:00
    everybody who was anybody had to have
  • 00:08:02
    transfer aware yes they're from the
  • 00:08:04
    perfect time so about 1770.
  • 00:08:08
    now debbie we don't have any evidence do
  • 00:08:10
    we that jane austen didn't eat an egg
  • 00:08:12
    out of this egg cup we don't know so she
  • 00:08:15
    may well have done take boston's egg
  • 00:08:21
    it's pretty but it's mass produced the
  • 00:08:24
    austins may have aspired to the latest
  • 00:08:26
    tableware but there wasn't that much
  • 00:08:28
    money for luxuries
  • 00:08:32
    jane's letters give a detailed account
  • 00:08:34
    of everyday life at steventon rectory
  • 00:08:37
    with its unfashionable meal times but a
  • 00:08:40
    wealth of intellectual sustenance
  • 00:08:46
    we dine now at half after three
  • 00:08:49
    and have done dinner i suppose before
  • 00:08:51
    you begin
  • 00:08:53
    we drink tea at half after six
  • 00:08:55
    i'm afraid you will despise us
  • 00:08:58
    my father reads cooper to us in the
  • 00:08:59
    evenings to which i listen when i can
  • 00:09:04
    reading was a big part of life at
  • 00:09:06
    steventon and jane had free access to
  • 00:09:09
    her father's library which contained
  • 00:09:11
    many works of fiction
  • 00:09:13
    i think that this room set jane on her
  • 00:09:16
    path as a writer
  • 00:09:18
    the books here inspired her from the age
  • 00:09:21
    of 11 she wrote plays satires poems and
  • 00:09:26
    novels
  • 00:09:27
    but how could her talent drive in such a
  • 00:09:30
    crowded house
  • 00:09:33
    jane austen's father realized that his
  • 00:09:35
    daughter
  • 00:09:36
    was becoming a serious writer
  • 00:09:39
    so he marked this by getting her as a
  • 00:09:41
    19th birthday present this expensive and
  • 00:09:44
    beautiful mahogany writing desk
  • 00:09:48
    it hinges open like this so you can
  • 00:09:51
    write on the slope of it
  • 00:09:53
    now for millions of jane austen lovers
  • 00:09:56
    this item is a holy relic because under
  • 00:10:00
    this flap she would have kept drafts of
  • 00:10:03
    all of her novels
  • 00:10:04
    and to the very end of her life
  • 00:10:06
    everywhere that jane austen went
  • 00:10:09
    this box went to
  • 00:10:14
    think of it as a tiny little office
  • 00:10:17
    the only space in her crowded home that
  • 00:10:19
    jane had completely to herself
  • 00:10:23
    but she didn't spend all of her time
  • 00:10:25
    shut up in the rectory
  • 00:10:28
    jane was a keen walker
  • 00:10:30
    she had to be for most of her life the
  • 00:10:33
    austin family couldn't afford a carriage
  • 00:10:36
    and she often traveled miles on foot
  • 00:10:39
    visiting a network of friends in the
  • 00:10:41
    villages around steventon
  • 00:10:43
    some of their houses still survive like
  • 00:10:46
    ash rectory
  • 00:10:48
    here jane would call on her close friend
  • 00:10:50
    mrs anne lefroy
  • 00:10:52
    [Music]
  • 00:10:58
    music was a big part of these women's
  • 00:11:01
    social lives
  • 00:11:02
    i'm meeting professor janiece brooks to
  • 00:11:05
    learn about jane austen the piano player
  • 00:11:10
    was music something that girls did
  • 00:11:12
    together yeah um there's there's lots of
  • 00:11:16
    evidence that young women were
  • 00:11:18
    communicating around and through music
  • 00:11:21
    in the same way that we think about how
  • 00:11:23
    teenagers today communicate through
  • 00:11:25
    music and by exchanging music by
  • 00:11:28
    swapping things around by saying hey
  • 00:11:30
    listen to this this is my favorite right
  • 00:11:32
    now it sounds like we don't know exactly
  • 00:11:35
    how proficient she was but jane austen
  • 00:11:38
    does strike me as somebody who really
  • 00:11:40
    loves music
  • 00:11:41
    would you agree yes yes and i think it's
  • 00:11:44
    important that if you look at the novels
  • 00:11:45
    um in all of the novels intelligent
  • 00:11:48
    conversation is always about music and
  • 00:11:51
    books it's not just books it's music and
  • 00:11:53
    books it's something that she sees as
  • 00:11:57
    part of a kind of normal cultured
  • 00:11:59
    education something that people can talk
  • 00:12:01
    about something that is important and
  • 00:12:04
    she seems to in later life to have
  • 00:12:06
    played every day for herself
  • 00:12:08
    it's a thread that weaves right through
  • 00:12:11
    all of jane's novels as well there's
  • 00:12:14
    there are always characters who play in
  • 00:12:16
    every single novel there's some very
  • 00:12:18
    important scenes that happen while
  • 00:12:20
    people are playing
  • 00:12:24
    with music came dancing which jane also
  • 00:12:28
    loved many of her plots center around
  • 00:12:30
    the excitement of encounters at balls
  • 00:12:33
    and jane felt that thrill herself
  • 00:12:37
    dean house newly built at the time was
  • 00:12:40
    the scene of one particularly eventful
  • 00:12:42
    ball for jane
  • 00:12:47
    she came here on the night of january
  • 00:12:49
    the 8th
  • 00:12:50
    1796 she just turned 20
  • 00:12:54
    and i've got the chance to see inside
  • 00:12:57
    the very room where jane danced
  • 00:13:03
    now this might not be the big and
  • 00:13:05
    glamorous ballroom that you were
  • 00:13:07
    expecting but it was possible to hold a
  • 00:13:10
    ball in just an ordinary house you'd
  • 00:13:12
    push back the furniture and invite
  • 00:13:15
    around the neighbors for a dance
  • 00:13:17
    this meant that when jane went to balls
  • 00:13:19
    she wasn't always meeting new people
  • 00:13:21
    there were a lot of familiar faces
  • 00:13:24
    but one night in this very room she did
  • 00:13:27
    meet somebody new he was a young law
  • 00:13:30
    student called tom lafoy
  • 00:13:33
    he and jane got on awfully well and
  • 00:13:35
    pretty soon they were flirting
  • 00:13:37
    outrageously
  • 00:13:42
    tom was the nephew of jane's friend mrs
  • 00:13:45
    lafoy
  • 00:13:46
    jane's letters to her sister cassandra
  • 00:13:49
    tell of encounters with tom over the
  • 00:13:52
    course of a series of balls it all
  • 00:13:54
    started so promisingly
  • 00:13:59
    you scold me so much in the nice long
  • 00:14:01
    letter which i have this moment received
  • 00:14:03
    from you
  • 00:14:04
    that i'm almost afraid to tell you how
  • 00:14:06
    my irish friend and i behaved
  • 00:14:09
    imagine to yourself everything most
  • 00:14:12
    profligate and shocking
  • 00:14:14
    in the way of dancing and sitting down
  • 00:14:16
    together
  • 00:14:18
    [Music]
  • 00:14:23
    after i'd written the above we received
  • 00:14:26
    a visit from mr tom lefroy
  • 00:14:28
    he has but one fault
  • 00:14:31
    which time will i trust entirely remove
  • 00:14:34
    it is that his morning coat is a great
  • 00:14:36
    deal too light
  • 00:14:38
    [Music]
  • 00:14:44
    i rather expect to receive an offer from
  • 00:14:46
    my friend in the course of the evening
  • 00:14:48
    [Music]
  • 00:14:50
    i shall refuse him however
  • 00:14:52
    unless he promises to give away his
  • 00:14:54
    white coat
  • 00:14:56
    [Music]
  • 00:15:00
    that tom's family didn't approve
  • 00:15:03
    their serious young lawyer was having
  • 00:15:05
    way too much fun with jane
  • 00:15:07
    at their final ball together he didn't
  • 00:15:10
    propose
  • 00:15:13
    sometimes people at balls drank too much
  • 00:15:16
    even jane austen
  • 00:15:18
    one time she wrote about a hangover she
  • 00:15:20
    had and the shaking of her hands the
  • 00:15:23
    morning after
  • 00:15:25
    and there would be a rude awakening from
  • 00:15:28
    her romance with tom lafoy tom was sent
  • 00:15:31
    away from hampshire
  • 00:15:33
    he had 10 siblings he needed to be able
  • 00:15:36
    to support them he needed to marry
  • 00:15:38
    someone richer than jane
  • 00:15:43
    the harsh truth was that in jane's world
  • 00:15:47
    money usually came before love
  • 00:15:51
    no wonder this became a central fiend in
  • 00:15:53
    her novels
  • 00:15:57
    and i don't think it's a coincidence
  • 00:15:59
    that this is the year when jane wrote
  • 00:16:01
    her first draft of pride and prejudice
  • 00:16:05
    [Music]
  • 00:16:07
    in fiction at least she could make sure
  • 00:16:09
    that the poor but clever heroine one
  • 00:16:12
    both the good man and his impressive
  • 00:16:15
    house and grounds
  • 00:16:18
    different
  • 00:16:20
    world i think it had a huge effect on
  • 00:16:23
    her
  • 00:16:28
    now it's a cop
  • 00:16:31
    this might be the very room where jane
  • 00:16:33
    stayed when she was at god mushroom a
  • 00:16:35
    whole room to herself
  • 00:16:37
    she liked staying here because of the
  • 00:16:39
    luxury
  • 00:16:40
    she wrote that she was going to eat ice
  • 00:16:42
    cream and drink french wine and be above
  • 00:16:45
    vulgar economy
  • 00:16:48
    but it's quite hard for her as the poor
  • 00:16:50
    relation she worried that she couldn't
  • 00:16:52
    afford to tip the servants properly
  • 00:16:55
    and jane's relatives here at god mission
  • 00:16:57
    were very different from her they were
  • 00:17:00
    hyper social they were into their
  • 00:17:02
    outdoor pursuits they thought jane was
  • 00:17:05
    clever but a bit odd
  • 00:17:07
    i think it's telling that she made one
  • 00:17:09
    very close friend here who wasn't a
  • 00:17:11
    member of the family
  • 00:17:13
    it was the governess
  • 00:17:17
    jane just wasn't in the same league as
  • 00:17:19
    her fortunate brother and even the
  • 00:17:22
    visiting hairdresser seems to have
  • 00:17:24
    noticed
  • 00:17:31
    mr hall walked off this morning with no
  • 00:17:33
    inconsiderable booty
  • 00:17:35
    he charged elizabeth five shillings for
  • 00:17:37
    every time of dressing her hair
  • 00:17:40
    towards me he was as considerate as i'd
  • 00:17:43
    hoped for
  • 00:17:44
    charging me only two shilling sixpence
  • 00:17:46
    for cutting my hair
  • 00:17:48
    he certainly respects either our youth
  • 00:17:51
    or our poverty
  • 00:17:55
    jane was expected to earn her keep
  • 00:17:58
    helping to entertain a growing brood of
  • 00:18:01
    nieces and nephews
  • 00:18:03
    one niece recalled spending entire days
  • 00:18:06
    acting out plays with aunt jane
  • 00:18:11
    home theatricals were all the rage at
  • 00:18:13
    the time
  • 00:18:14
    and professor judith hawley is helping
  • 00:18:17
    me to put on a play that jane wrote
  • 00:18:19
    herself as a child
  • 00:18:21
    [Music]
  • 00:18:25
    scene the first a parlor
  • 00:18:33
    cousin your servant
  • 00:18:37
    stanley good morning to you i hope you
  • 00:18:39
    slept well last night
  • 00:18:41
    uh remarkably well i thank you i am
  • 00:18:44
    afraid you found your bed too short it
  • 00:18:46
    was brought in my grandmother's time who
  • 00:18:48
    was herself a very short woman and made
  • 00:18:51
    a point to suit in all her beds to suit
  • 00:18:53
    her own length
  • 00:18:55
    dude if you've lived in a lovely big
  • 00:18:57
    house in the country like this it must
  • 00:18:59
    be very nice but do you think perhaps it
  • 00:19:01
    got boring and you just longed for
  • 00:19:03
    something to happen
  • 00:19:05
    that's when you could put on a private
  • 00:19:06
    theatrical and then you had the whole
  • 00:19:08
    sense of an event to work towards and
  • 00:19:10
    the whole household could be involved
  • 00:19:12
    one of the pleasures would just be in
  • 00:19:14
    that business of the the bustle of
  • 00:19:15
    turning house upside down you know
  • 00:19:17
    they're rolling back the carpets
  • 00:19:18
    clearing out all the furniture that sort
  • 00:19:20
    of chaotic disruption do we know what
  • 00:19:22
    plays jane austen wrote herself
  • 00:19:25
    we've got three surviving manuscripts in
  • 00:19:27
    her juvenilia her second play which is
  • 00:19:29
    my favorite is called the visit what
  • 00:19:31
    happens in the visit in the visit
  • 00:19:34
    there's a brother and sister who invite
  • 00:19:36
    people to their house
  • 00:19:38
    only nothing works according to plan
  • 00:19:41
    they're very apologetic about it but
  • 00:19:43
    they're only six chairs for eight people
  • 00:19:45
    because grand mama didn't really like
  • 00:19:46
    having people around
  • 00:19:48
    so arthur and lady hampton miss hampton
  • 00:19:51
    mister and miss willoughby
  • 00:19:54
    oh that's a lot of people here they all
  • 00:19:56
    come
  • 00:19:59
    oh pray pray be seated
  • 00:20:03
    bless me there really ought to be eight
  • 00:20:05
    chairs but there are but six however if
  • 00:20:08
    your lady ship will will take um some
  • 00:20:11
    offer um in your lap and and sophie my
  • 00:20:15
    brother in yours then i believe that we
  • 00:20:17
    shall do pretty well i beg you'll make
  • 00:20:21
    no apologies um
  • 00:20:24
    oh sophie oh yes please
  • 00:20:27
    your brother really is very light
  • 00:20:30
    this is better than a chair
  • 00:20:32
    now if you've read mansfield park by
  • 00:20:34
    jane austen you might think that she
  • 00:20:36
    doesn't approve of theatricals because
  • 00:20:38
    they're a cover for flirtation and all
  • 00:20:40
    sorts of inappropriate behavior well
  • 00:20:42
    fanny he's the sort of the center of the
  • 00:20:44
    moral consciousness of the novel
  • 00:20:46
    certainly refuses to act fanny will not
  • 00:20:49
    act
  • 00:20:50
    but it's simply not the case that jane
  • 00:20:51
    austen herself disapproved of either
  • 00:20:54
    play reading or theater going or
  • 00:20:57
    involving herself in private theatricals
  • 00:21:00
    she's absorbing things from life and
  • 00:21:01
    transforming them in artistic ways
  • 00:21:07
    in mansfield park the amateur
  • 00:21:09
    theatricals helped to expose the
  • 00:21:12
    conflicts and jealousies within a great
  • 00:21:14
    house just the sort of thing that jane
  • 00:21:16
    might have witnessed at god mission i
  • 00:21:19
    think that this was the house that had
  • 00:21:21
    the biggest influence on jane's writing
  • 00:21:34
    some of jane's other travels were rather
  • 00:21:37
    more relaxing
  • 00:21:42
    as the 19th century dawned jane's
  • 00:21:45
    parents embraced the fashion for tourism
  • 00:21:49
    they took jane to sidmuth to dawlish
  • 00:21:53
    and then to lyme regis
  • 00:21:56
    [Music]
  • 00:22:00
    jane couldn't swim but she was dipped in
  • 00:22:03
    the sea by a local woman called molly
  • 00:22:07
    she probably didn't bathe nude whatever
  • 00:22:10
    this picture might suggest
  • 00:22:12
    but it is true that lime was a free and
  • 00:22:15
    easy sort of a place
  • 00:22:18
    this book is a guide to the sea bathing
  • 00:22:21
    places and it's pretty frank about the
  • 00:22:23
    advantages of lime advantages that would
  • 00:22:26
    have appealed to the austins
  • 00:22:29
    the lodgings at lime are not merely
  • 00:22:31
    reasonable they are even cheap it's a
  • 00:22:34
    budget resort there's no need to dress
  • 00:22:37
    up in fancy clothes no need for
  • 00:22:39
    extravagance of exterior show
  • 00:22:42
    the boarding houses in lime are graded
  • 00:22:45
    at the top of the hill you've got
  • 00:22:47
    pleasant houses with nice views for
  • 00:22:49
    persons of consideration
  • 00:22:51
    down in the lower town though you'll
  • 00:22:53
    find the lower orders
  • 00:22:56
    i'm sorry to say that the austins were
  • 00:22:58
    right at the bottom of the hill in mr
  • 00:23:01
    pine's house just there
  • 00:23:03
    [Music]
  • 00:23:07
    even on holiday you had to know your
  • 00:23:10
    place
  • 00:23:11
    and you got what you paid for the
  • 00:23:13
    accommodation rented by the austins was
  • 00:23:16
    strictly no frills
  • 00:23:19
    jane wouldn't have given a very good
  • 00:23:20
    review to the various lodging houses of
  • 00:23:23
    lime
  • 00:23:24
    of one of them she wrote the
  • 00:23:26
    inconvenience is exceeded only by the
  • 00:23:28
    dirtiness
  • 00:23:29
    and she had a bit of a ding-dong with
  • 00:23:31
    the owner at this place mr pine about
  • 00:23:34
    the ludicrous sum he wanted to charge
  • 00:23:36
    for something that got broken
  • 00:23:39
    but jane
  • 00:23:40
    didn't care at all because she could
  • 00:23:43
    look out of this window and watch the
  • 00:23:45
    sea
  • 00:23:56
    jane ford that traveled to the seaside
  • 00:23:59
    was very delightful
  • 00:24:01
    a taste of the itinerant life she envied
  • 00:24:04
    in the wives of sailors or soldiers
  • 00:24:07
    and there was a wildness here jane was
  • 00:24:10
    most drawn to the sea wall called the
  • 00:24:12
    cob
  • 00:24:13
    she once spent a whole hour walking
  • 00:24:16
    along it
  • 00:24:19
    you're not allowed to walk up here when
  • 00:24:21
    it's windy because the big waves come
  • 00:24:24
    jumping up over the edge
  • 00:24:26
    and i think that for jane being at the
  • 00:24:28
    seaside was all about cutting loose and
  • 00:24:31
    letting go
  • 00:24:35
    she did have a holiday fling at the
  • 00:24:37
    seaside
  • 00:24:38
    and her sister later said that this
  • 00:24:40
    mysterious man had been the love of
  • 00:24:43
    jane's life
  • 00:24:48
    jane saw the seaside as a place for
  • 00:24:50
    passion and lime became one of her most
  • 00:24:53
    memorable literary settings
  • 00:24:57
    in jane's novel persuasion the high
  • 00:25:00
    winds drive some ladies to come down
  • 00:25:02
    from the upper cob to walk on the lower
  • 00:25:04
    part but one of them louisa gets so
  • 00:25:08
    excited by the wind and the waves that
  • 00:25:10
    she wants to jump down to the bottom and
  • 00:25:12
    into the arms of a dashing sea captain
  • 00:25:16
    she slips she falls she's lifeless on
  • 00:25:19
    the ground in this case the exhilaration
  • 00:25:22
    at the seaside has led to danger
  • 00:25:27
    jane herself liked the idea of a leap
  • 00:25:30
    into the unknown that's what holidays
  • 00:25:32
    were for
  • 00:25:34
    but a permanent move was quite another
  • 00:25:37
    matter
  • 00:25:38
    in 1801 aged 25
  • 00:25:42
    jane had to leave her home in steventon
  • 00:25:45
    forever
  • 00:25:47
    her father decided to retire and
  • 00:25:50
    relocate taking his wife and daughters
  • 00:25:52
    with him to start a new life in bath
  • 00:26:09
    it's said that when jane first heard she
  • 00:26:11
    was moving here she fainted
  • 00:26:15
    bath was a flourishing spa town with an
  • 00:26:18
    incredibly busy social scene
  • 00:26:21
    it was probably the last place that jane
  • 00:26:23
    would find peace and quiet to write
  • 00:26:27
    but she had no choice she decided it was
  • 00:26:30
    best just to get on with the move
  • 00:26:34
    jane and her mother threw themselves
  • 00:26:35
    into house hunting this was their
  • 00:26:38
    headquarters the house where jane's aunt
  • 00:26:40
    and uncle lived
  • 00:26:41
    jane's aunt wanted them to settle in
  • 00:26:43
    this part of town but it was no good it
  • 00:26:47
    was too noisy there wasn't enough
  • 00:26:49
    greenery and mr austin now had arthritis
  • 00:26:53
    he walked with a stick and couldn't
  • 00:26:54
    manage the steep hills
  • 00:26:58
    even more than in lime where you lived
  • 00:27:01
    in bath reflected your status there was
  • 00:27:04
    a thriving rental market catering to
  • 00:27:06
    wealthy visitors
  • 00:27:08
    i'm off to see some of the places that
  • 00:27:10
    jane considered there are an awful lot
  • 00:27:13
    of them
  • 00:27:21
    i went with my mother to help look at
  • 00:27:23
    some houses in new king street towards
  • 00:27:25
    which she felt some kind of inclination
  • 00:27:28
    they were smaller than i expected to
  • 00:27:30
    find them
  • 00:27:32
    quite monstrously little
  • 00:27:35
    jane's mother kept setting her heart on
  • 00:27:38
    the most unsuitable places
  • 00:27:41
    above all others her wishes are at
  • 00:27:43
    present fixed on the corner house in
  • 00:27:45
    chapel row which opens into princess
  • 00:27:47
    street
  • 00:27:48
    her knowledge of it however is confined
  • 00:27:50
    only to the outside
  • 00:27:54
    the houses in green park buildings were
  • 00:27:58
    so very desirable in size and situation
  • 00:28:01
    but they were also very damp
  • 00:28:03
    the austins looked at charles street
  • 00:28:06
    seymour street westgate buildings the
  • 00:28:08
    streets of laura place too expensive gay
  • 00:28:12
    street too steep
  • 00:28:14
    at least jane and her mother agreed on
  • 00:28:16
    one place they absolutely would not live
  • 00:28:19
    she will do everything in her power to
  • 00:28:21
    avoid trim street
  • 00:28:30
    eventually the austins decided on four
  • 00:28:34
    sydney place
  • 00:28:37
    [Music]
  • 00:28:43
    newly built and a flat walk from the
  • 00:28:46
    center it had the right sort of
  • 00:28:48
    neighbors a baronet a major general and
  • 00:28:51
    a lady
  • 00:28:53
    and it was just about affordable at 150
  • 00:28:56
    pounds a year that's a quarter of jane's
  • 00:28:58
    father's income
  • 00:29:00
    these days it's a holiday let which
  • 00:29:03
    means that i get to stay the night
  • 00:29:05
    the austins had rather longer a free
  • 00:29:08
    year lease to enjoy its comforts
  • 00:29:13
    up here are the bedrooms
  • 00:29:16
    mr and mrs austin had the lovely view
  • 00:29:18
    over the park
  • 00:29:23
    while jane and cassandra shared the room
  • 00:29:25
    at the back
  • 00:29:33
    this fantastic
  • 00:29:35
    and usually ginormous document contains
  • 00:29:39
    the original deeds of four sydney place
  • 00:29:42
    here's a beautiful elevation showing
  • 00:29:44
    exactly how the builder should construct
  • 00:29:47
    the house and over here is the contract
  • 00:29:50
    which specifies that he's got to put in
  • 00:29:52
    street lighting and running water it's
  • 00:29:55
    all terribly grand
  • 00:29:57
    but sitting here in jane and cassandra's
  • 00:30:00
    bedroom what strikes me is that your
  • 00:30:03
    experience of a georgian house like this
  • 00:30:05
    really does depend on your position in
  • 00:30:07
    society
  • 00:30:08
    the girls are tucked away upstairs in
  • 00:30:11
    the back bedroom
  • 00:30:12
    and out of their window what you can see
  • 00:30:14
    today are the slightly rubbish backs of
  • 00:30:17
    the houses behind
  • 00:30:20
    in fact this document doesn't specify
  • 00:30:23
    what the back of sydney place was to
  • 00:30:25
    look like because
  • 00:30:27
    nobody cared
  • 00:30:28
    bath was all about the first impression
  • 00:30:33
    [Music]
  • 00:30:37
    first impressions mattered because most
  • 00:30:39
    people didn't stay in bath for long
  • 00:30:42
    the whole social scene was constantly
  • 00:30:45
    changing
  • 00:30:46
    jane had to embark on a complex schedule
  • 00:30:49
    of visits and engagements and there was
  • 00:30:51
    always the hope that she might find a
  • 00:30:53
    husband
  • 00:30:56
    i'm paying a call just as jane would
  • 00:30:58
    have done to a rather grander house than
  • 00:31:00
    her own in the royal present
  • 00:31:03
    professor elaine chalos has left her
  • 00:31:05
    card for me so i'm now returning the
  • 00:31:08
    visit
  • 00:31:10
    good morning elaine
  • 00:31:11
    hi lucy thank you for having me oh
  • 00:31:13
    you're very welcome
  • 00:31:15
    i'm paying you a morning call what are
  • 00:31:18
    the rules for that you will come in and
  • 00:31:20
    you'll find me in my morning drawing
  • 00:31:22
    room in this house it happens to be on
  • 00:31:23
    the ground floor but often it's upstairs
  • 00:31:26
    if you're somebody that i don't know
  • 00:31:28
    particularly well or you're paying me a
  • 00:31:29
    courtesy call
  • 00:31:31
    you may come in stay 10 15 minutes maybe
  • 00:31:33
    half an hour maximum and go
  • 00:31:35
    if you're somebody that's intimate with
  • 00:31:37
    me and we're good friends we haven't
  • 00:31:38
    seen each other for a while we could
  • 00:31:40
    then spend the rest of the morning
  • 00:31:41
    together basically
  • 00:31:43
    gossiping and having chat over tea and
  • 00:31:45
    what would you do if you didn't want to
  • 00:31:47
    see me you can keep me out oh yeah yeah
  • 00:31:50
    that's rather fun um you basically tell
  • 00:31:52
    your servants that you're not in so
  • 00:31:54
    elaine the morning's over what's next in
  • 00:31:56
    the bath schedule once you've changed
  • 00:31:58
    and you're ready to go out then you'll
  • 00:32:00
    go out and you'll maybe go for your walk
  • 00:32:02
    um
  • 00:32:03
    you might go shopping you come home and
  • 00:32:05
    you're gonna change again of course
  • 00:32:08
    um and you'll get ready for dinner and
  • 00:32:10
    that wouldn't take place in this room
  • 00:32:11
    that would actually take place on the
  • 00:32:13
    other side and it was really important
  • 00:32:15
    that you had a good dining room because
  • 00:32:18
    a dining room is one of the places where
  • 00:32:20
    people get together
  • 00:32:22
    over food and drink it's more intimate
  • 00:32:26
    than the morning visits that is a
  • 00:32:28
    fantastic display isn't it a lovely
  • 00:32:30
    dinner yeah and it's a wonderful place
  • 00:32:32
    to show off your best china to show off
  • 00:32:35
    the the skills of your cook
  • 00:32:38
    after dinner the guests moved upstairs
  • 00:32:41
    for tea where they were often joined by
  • 00:32:43
    second-tier visitors that's people like
  • 00:32:45
    the austins
  • 00:32:47
    this is the parlor with drawing room
  • 00:32:49
    where the women would come after dinner
  • 00:32:51
    and things would be set out already for
  • 00:32:53
    tea as they are here
  • 00:32:55
    you would find all kinds of things going
  • 00:32:56
    on we would have some people
  • 00:32:58
    reading and you could be of course
  • 00:33:00
    playing on whatever musical instruments
  • 00:33:02
    were available we've got a harpsichord
  • 00:33:03
    here by the time of austin often you
  • 00:33:05
    would have had a piano there might have
  • 00:33:06
    been a harp but these kinds of things so
  • 00:33:08
    that you've got something to do to keep
  • 00:33:11
    your hands occupied did jane enjoy these
  • 00:33:13
    tea drinking sessions
  • 00:33:15
    some of them she did some of them she
  • 00:33:17
    enjoyed because she liked the people but
  • 00:33:18
    there were certainly some events that
  • 00:33:21
    she found desperately difficult in terms
  • 00:33:23
    of being really really boring i love the
  • 00:33:26
    time when she says nothing much is
  • 00:33:27
    happening so the entertainment is a
  • 00:33:30
    reading from a pamphlet about smallpox
  • 00:33:33
    yeah that that kind of thing can happen
  • 00:33:35
    if i think smallpox tells you it was a
  • 00:33:37
    really slow evening the subtext to all
  • 00:33:40
    this social life is husband hunting
  • 00:33:43
    isn't it how did that go for jane what
  • 00:33:45
    sort of a catch was she
  • 00:33:48
    not a great catch actually um she
  • 00:33:51
    wouldn't have had a huge amount of money
  • 00:33:52
    to bring with her she's a vicar's
  • 00:33:54
    daughter she's not superbly beautiful
  • 00:33:58
    she does have a gsoh sense of humor well
  • 00:34:01
    she does have that but that's actually
  • 00:34:02
    double-edged because having a witty
  • 00:34:04
    woman who could sort of take the mick
  • 00:34:07
    out of out of the men isn't necessarily
  • 00:34:09
    going to win you a lot of a lot of
  • 00:34:11
    plaudits with some men for sure it will
  • 00:34:13
    put them off
  • 00:34:15
    [Music]
  • 00:34:17
    jane may not have been to the liking of
  • 00:34:19
    the bath bachelors but while she was
  • 00:34:22
    living here she did receive a proposal
  • 00:34:24
    from a highly eligible country gentleman
  • 00:34:27
    [Music]
  • 00:34:32
    in 1802
  • 00:34:34
    jane and cassandra visited some old
  • 00:34:37
    friends catherine and alaphia big back
  • 00:34:40
    in hampshire
  • 00:34:44
    they were joined by the big's younger
  • 00:34:46
    brother
  • 00:34:47
    21 year old harris big wither
  • 00:34:53
    harris big wither proposed to jane and
  • 00:34:56
    she accepted him
  • 00:34:58
    she must have been relieved she was
  • 00:35:01
    nearly 27 getting on a bit
  • 00:35:04
    and while harris wasn't a looker he was
  • 00:35:06
    very respectable and he was going to
  • 00:35:08
    inherit many down park long since
  • 00:35:11
    demolished
  • 00:35:12
    but the next morning having fought it
  • 00:35:15
    over
  • 00:35:16
    jane broke it all off it must have been
  • 00:35:19
    excruciatingly awkward she had to flee
  • 00:35:22
    from many damn park in embarrassment
  • 00:35:26
    it was probably for the best
  • 00:35:29
    harris didn't have much conversation
  • 00:35:32
    he could sometimes be outrageously rude
  • 00:35:34
    and jane clearly didn't love him
  • 00:35:38
    and i believe there was another reason
  • 00:35:41
    jane was feeling confident enough to
  • 00:35:43
    turn down the mansion and the cushy
  • 00:35:46
    lifestyle
  • 00:35:47
    she thought that she was soon going to
  • 00:35:49
    become a published author
  • 00:35:52
    and she knew that if she got married
  • 00:35:54
    she'd have to give birth to babies not
  • 00:35:56
    books
  • 00:36:01
    sure enough in 1803 james sold the
  • 00:36:04
    manuscript of her novel susan to a
  • 00:36:07
    publisher for 10 whole pounds this book
  • 00:36:10
    would eventually become northanger abbey
  • 00:36:13
    and it's all about bath society
  • 00:36:17
    its young heroine catherine arrives here
  • 00:36:20
    with eager delight ready for the
  • 00:36:22
    pleasures of the public dances and the
  • 00:36:24
    pump rooms it seemed that jane had
  • 00:36:27
    finally made it as an author
  • 00:36:33
    except
  • 00:36:34
    it all came to nothing
  • 00:36:36
    the novel wasn't printed in her lifetime
  • 00:36:38
    and jane had lost her chance at
  • 00:36:40
    independence
  • 00:36:44
    single women have a dreadful propensity
  • 00:36:46
    for being poor
  • 00:36:49
    which is one very strong argument in
  • 00:36:51
    favor of matrimony
  • 00:36:57
    it was the start of a difficult time the
  • 00:37:00
    austins were going down in the world
  • 00:37:04
    [Music]
  • 00:37:06
    when the lease expired on sydney place
  • 00:37:09
    they were forced to take a house in
  • 00:37:11
    green park buildings even though they
  • 00:37:14
    previously ruled it out
  • 00:37:16
    then in 1805 jane's father became
  • 00:37:19
    seriously ill with a fever
  • 00:37:21
    and he died
  • 00:37:24
    when the austins had first been house
  • 00:37:25
    hunting in bath they'd rejected green
  • 00:37:28
    park buildings because although the
  • 00:37:29
    houses were cheap they were damp
  • 00:37:32
    you can see that they've been built up
  • 00:37:34
    on a platform because the river used to
  • 00:37:36
    flood just here the people in the houses
  • 00:37:38
    complained about putrid fevers
  • 00:37:43
    now when you get a lot of water standing
  • 00:37:45
    around you get mosquitoes
  • 00:37:48
    and mr austin's waves of fever are
  • 00:37:51
    consistent with the disease of malaria
  • 00:37:55
    it could be that green park buildings
  • 00:37:58
    killed him
  • 00:38:02
    whatever the cause his death was a
  • 00:38:04
    disaster
  • 00:38:06
    jane and her mother and sister now found
  • 00:38:09
    themselves in reduced circumstances
  • 00:38:12
    reliant on the charity of jane's
  • 00:38:15
    brothers
  • 00:38:16
    they moved again to gay street and then
  • 00:38:19
    finally to the dreaded trim street
  • 00:38:25
    in trim street there weren't any titled
  • 00:38:27
    neighbors just a milliness and a fire
  • 00:38:29
    insurance office
  • 00:38:31
    jane's mother was really fed up with
  • 00:38:33
    living here she addressed her letters
  • 00:38:35
    from trim street still
  • 00:38:39
    in persuasion james heroin and elliot
  • 00:38:43
    persists in a very determined though
  • 00:38:46
    very silent disinclination for bath
  • 00:38:49
    you could certainly go off a place
  • 00:38:54
    the truth was that the austins couldn't
  • 00:38:57
    afford to stay there
  • 00:39:00
    in 1806 after five years in bath jane
  • 00:39:04
    was packed off again this time to a
  • 00:39:06
    rented house in distinctly down market
  • 00:39:09
    southampton
  • 00:39:13
    jane's brother frank was in the navy he
  • 00:39:16
    moved his mother and sisters in with his
  • 00:39:19
    young wife while he was away at sea
  • 00:39:22
    southampton was the lowest point in
  • 00:39:25
    jane's fortunes
  • 00:39:27
    it was described by one contemporary
  • 00:39:29
    visitor as a dirty town with
  • 00:39:32
    unsurpassably smelly side streets
  • 00:39:38
    southampton has changed quite a lot
  • 00:39:40
    since jane's time but she would still
  • 00:39:42
    recognize the ancient stone ramparts
  • 00:39:46
    [Music]
  • 00:39:49
    all this used to be the sea it came
  • 00:39:52
    right up against the old city walls you
  • 00:39:55
    can see dolphins from this spot
  • 00:39:57
    it's now dry land and a ginormous
  • 00:40:00
    building site
  • 00:40:04
    jane's house has gone too
  • 00:40:06
    but luckily a contemporary artist
  • 00:40:08
    included it in his painting
  • 00:40:12
    this is jane's house right next door to
  • 00:40:14
    this rather eccentric castle that had
  • 00:40:17
    recently been embellished with extra
  • 00:40:19
    turrets
  • 00:40:21
    i think that the austin ladies chose
  • 00:40:23
    this house because it had a lovely
  • 00:40:24
    garden they were missing greenery and
  • 00:40:27
    you can see the garden's trees poking up
  • 00:40:30
    over the old city walls
  • 00:40:32
    and despite the size it soon got full up
  • 00:40:36
    there was jane her sister their mother
  • 00:40:39
    their friend martha their sister-in-law
  • 00:40:41
    mary add in three or four servants and
  • 00:40:44
    you have a household of eight or nine
  • 00:40:46
    women
  • 00:40:47
    it was cramped
  • 00:40:50
    [Music]
  • 00:40:52
    the castle's been replaced by a tower
  • 00:40:54
    block
  • 00:40:55
    and jane's garden by a pub
  • 00:40:58
    time for a pint
  • 00:41:00
    jane had to spend her money very
  • 00:41:02
    carefully because it was all gifted to
  • 00:41:04
    her earning money was inappropriate for
  • 00:41:06
    a gentle woman
  • 00:41:08
    jane's actual accounts from 1807 survive
  • 00:41:13
    her mother and brother covered food and
  • 00:41:15
    rent but everything else was down to her
  • 00:41:18
    this is jane's discretionary expenditure
  • 00:41:22
    and she's feeling very flush because
  • 00:41:24
    she's just received a legacy from a
  • 00:41:27
    little old lady that she met and got to
  • 00:41:29
    know in bath this is payback time for
  • 00:41:32
    all of that hard socializing
  • 00:41:34
    so what's she spending on
  • 00:41:36
    on getting her clothes washed
  • 00:41:40
    on letters and parcels that's very
  • 00:41:42
    characteristic and there are treats here
  • 00:41:45
    too because she's feeling rich she's
  • 00:41:47
    hired a piano for two pounds
  • 00:41:50
    she gives away
  • 00:41:52
    a quarter of her money in tips to
  • 00:41:54
    servants in charity and in presence
  • 00:41:58
    someone else had given her this money
  • 00:42:00
    now she was giving it to people who were
  • 00:42:02
    even more in need it's a very
  • 00:42:05
    feminine form of economics
  • 00:42:08
    and it's a very precarious way of living
  • 00:42:14
    jane had no income except from family
  • 00:42:17
    and friends
  • 00:42:19
    she didn't have time or space to write
  • 00:42:23
    stuck in southampton in her mid-30s she
  • 00:42:26
    had no prospects at
  • 00:42:28
    all
  • 00:42:30
    but then along came another chance to
  • 00:42:32
    move
  • 00:42:33
    jane's brother edward the rich adopted
  • 00:42:36
    one who lived in kent also had a little
  • 00:42:39
    bolt hole in hampshire
  • 00:42:42
    [Music]
  • 00:42:44
    house
  • 00:42:45
    a glorious elizabethan manor
  • 00:42:50
    when edward's wife died
  • 00:42:53
    his thoughts turned to his home county
  • 00:42:56
    and to his mother and sisters
  • 00:42:59
    why not move them all back to be near
  • 00:43:02
    him
  • 00:43:03
    so in 1809 jane found herself heading
  • 00:43:06
    again for a prime property but edward
  • 00:43:09
    wasn't quite as generous as he might
  • 00:43:11
    have been
  • 00:43:11
    [Music]
  • 00:43:14
    jane wasn't moving here
  • 00:43:20
    but to the former bailiffs house down
  • 00:43:22
    the street
  • 00:43:27
    chorten cottage was on a main road in
  • 00:43:30
    fact passing stagecoach passengers could
  • 00:43:32
    see right in through the windows
  • 00:43:38
    but at least it was an end to all the
  • 00:43:40
    uncertainty
  • 00:43:46
    and here jane settled down into a daily
  • 00:43:49
    routine
  • 00:43:50
    we're told that she got up early to play
  • 00:43:52
    the piano before anyone else was around
  • 00:43:55
    then at nine o'clock she made the tea
  • 00:43:59
    this seems to have been about the limit
  • 00:44:01
    of her household duties
  • 00:44:03
    it's as if the rest of them realized she
  • 00:44:05
    was no good at housework and shielded
  • 00:44:07
    her from it so that she could get on
  • 00:44:09
    with her writing
  • 00:44:11
    [Music]
  • 00:44:16
    jane now worked hard rewriting the
  • 00:44:19
    novels she'd started years earlier at
  • 00:44:21
    steventon
  • 00:44:23
    and in 1811 she finally had a book
  • 00:44:27
    published sense and sensibility it's the
  • 00:44:30
    story of sisters who were forced to
  • 00:44:32
    leave their spacious home and move to a
  • 00:44:35
    modest cottage in the country one with
  • 00:44:37
    dark narrow stairs in a kitchen that
  • 00:44:40
    smokes
  • 00:44:42
    the book made jane a respectable
  • 00:44:45
    140 pounds enough to cover her expenses
  • 00:44:48
    for three years
  • 00:44:50
    she sold the rights to pride and
  • 00:44:53
    prejudice for a similar amount
  • 00:44:55
    but when it came out in 1813 it was a
  • 00:44:58
    huge best seller it made jane's
  • 00:45:01
    publisher more than three times what
  • 00:45:04
    he'd paid her
  • 00:45:08
    jane still lived frugally at shelton
  • 00:45:10
    cottage with her sister mother and
  • 00:45:13
    friend martha
  • 00:45:15
    this is a collection of recipes put
  • 00:45:17
    together by the austin ladies with their
  • 00:45:20
    friend martha lloyd
  • 00:45:22
    they're not very ambitious in their
  • 00:45:24
    cooking plans the first recipe is for
  • 00:45:27
    pea soup
  • 00:45:29
    and they're thrifty if you turn to the
  • 00:45:31
    back of the book we've got recipes for
  • 00:45:33
    household products here's one for a cure
  • 00:45:37
    for a swelled neck
  • 00:45:39
    and here's one that seems particularly
  • 00:45:41
    appropriate a recipe to make
  • 00:45:44
    ink i'm going to have a go at that one
  • 00:45:47
    but possibly not while i'm holding a
  • 00:45:49
    priceless historical artifact
  • 00:45:54
    first you take ghouls these are little
  • 00:45:58
    nodules that are produced when an insect
  • 00:46:00
    lays its egg in an oak tree
  • 00:46:08
    next comes oh the gum this is gum arabic
  • 00:46:13
    and my gum has been pre-powdered
  • 00:46:16
    [Music]
  • 00:46:18
    next comes the green copper ass this
  • 00:46:21
    stuff is basically iron sulfate
  • 00:46:24
    [Music]
  • 00:46:26
    next you put in the strong stale
  • 00:46:29
    beer now there's no real chemical reason
  • 00:46:33
    for the beer but i think it's really in
  • 00:46:35
    the recipe to make ink making more fun
  • 00:46:44
    you add some sugar and stir
  • 00:46:51
    then you
  • 00:46:52
    stand the ink in a chimney corner for 14
  • 00:46:56
    days
  • 00:46:57
    and you shake it two or three times a
  • 00:46:59
    day
  • 00:47:00
    14 days
  • 00:47:03
    [Music]
  • 00:47:04
    unfortunately i don't think we have one
  • 00:47:06
    that we made earlier
  • 00:47:09
    [Music]
  • 00:47:16
    amazingly that does look like real ink
  • 00:47:19
    the original recipe makes two pints of
  • 00:47:22
    ink
  • 00:47:24
    jane needed plenty of it she wrote a
  • 00:47:26
    brand new novel mansfield park
  • 00:47:31
    her books were bringing her freedom and
  • 00:47:34
    confidence
  • 00:47:36
    [Music]
  • 00:47:37
    the nitty-gritty of publishing often
  • 00:47:39
    took jane to london where she stayed
  • 00:47:41
    with her brother henry who was now a
  • 00:47:43
    banker
  • 00:47:52
    henry had been working his way up the
  • 00:47:54
    london property ladder and by 1814 he
  • 00:47:58
    owned a fancy bachelor pad in hans place
  • 00:48:01
    knightsbridge
  • 00:48:03
    now replaced by mansion flats
  • 00:48:06
    [Music]
  • 00:48:11
    you might not think of london as jane
  • 00:48:14
    austenland but i reckon that this was
  • 00:48:17
    the place that suited her best of all
  • 00:48:20
    henry's house had a lovely garden right
  • 00:48:23
    next to his study it was august and when
  • 00:48:26
    jane got hot and tired of writing she
  • 00:48:28
    could come out here for a restorative
  • 00:48:31
    stroll
  • 00:48:32
    henry was out all day at his bank he was
  • 00:48:34
    now a widower he only had one maid there
  • 00:48:37
    was nobody to bother jane here at last
  • 00:48:41
    was a life free from social obligations
  • 00:48:44
    and here she got on with what i think is
  • 00:48:47
    her most brilliant book
  • 00:48:49
    emma
  • 00:48:51
    this new heroine was rich and confident
  • 00:48:55
    but she wasn't a woman of the world
  • 00:48:57
    although emma lives 16 miles from london
  • 00:49:00
    she never actually goes there jane was
  • 00:49:03
    more intrepid
  • 00:49:05
    for this latest novel jane's brother
  • 00:49:07
    henry had found her a more prestigious
  • 00:49:10
    publisher john murray but then henry
  • 00:49:13
    fell ill
  • 00:49:14
    and jane was forced for the first time
  • 00:49:16
    to start dealing with her business
  • 00:49:18
    herself
  • 00:49:19
    [Music]
  • 00:49:21
    this is john murray's office and home at
  • 00:49:24
    50 albemarle street
  • 00:49:27
    this was a place where lord byron and
  • 00:49:29
    sir walter scott would come
  • 00:49:32
    [Music]
  • 00:49:36
    i can imagine jane sitting impatiently
  • 00:49:39
    in this waiting room
  • 00:49:44
    before being sent upstairs to john
  • 00:49:46
    murray's famous drawing room
  • 00:49:48
    [Music]
  • 00:49:50
    murray had offered to publish emma but
  • 00:49:53
    he wanted the copyright of both
  • 00:49:55
    mansfield park and sense and sensibility
  • 00:49:58
    thrown in too
  • 00:50:01
    jane fought that murray was offering her
  • 00:50:03
    a bad deal
  • 00:50:05
    she decided to seize control of her
  • 00:50:08
    affairs at last
  • 00:50:11
    [Music]
  • 00:50:15
    so jane started to negotiate first by
  • 00:50:17
    lesser then in visits to this office it
  • 00:50:21
    was hard work
  • 00:50:22
    she wrote that john murray was a rogue
  • 00:50:25
    if a very civil one
  • 00:50:27
    and he offered her 450 pounds
  • 00:50:30
    now jane had been stung before by this
  • 00:50:34
    selling the copyright thing
  • 00:50:35
    that's how she published pride and
  • 00:50:37
    prejudice and when it sold much better
  • 00:50:39
    than expected it meant that the
  • 00:50:41
    publisher kept all the cash
  • 00:50:43
    so she refused that instead she went for
  • 00:50:47
    what we'd call self-publishing where she
  • 00:50:49
    ran the risk but will get the reward
  • 00:50:52
    minus 10 commission to murray
  • 00:50:56
    now the really heartbreaking thing is
  • 00:50:58
    that this was a terrible business
  • 00:51:00
    decision of james
  • 00:51:02
    none of her later books would sell as
  • 00:51:04
    well as pride and prejudice and by the
  • 00:51:07
    time she died she'd actually only earned
  • 00:51:10
    just over 650 pounds
  • 00:51:13
    from all her books
  • 00:51:16
    but for a few years during her visits to
  • 00:51:20
    london
  • 00:51:21
    jane glimpsed a different life
  • 00:51:24
    the life of a successful novelist
  • 00:51:27
    shopping
  • 00:51:28
    visiting exhibitions and plays
  • 00:51:31
    and traveling in her brother's carriage
  • 00:51:37
    [Music]
  • 00:51:39
    the driving about the carriage being
  • 00:51:42
    open
  • 00:51:43
    was very pleasant
  • 00:51:45
    i liked my solitary elegance very much
  • 00:51:47
    and was ready to laugh all the time at
  • 00:51:49
    my being where i was
  • 00:51:51
    i could not but feel that i had
  • 00:51:53
    naturally small right to be parading
  • 00:51:55
    around london in a baruche
  • 00:51:57
    [Music]
  • 00:52:01
    jane was no longer dependent to be
  • 00:52:04
    passed about from one place to another
  • 00:52:05
    like a parcel
  • 00:52:07
    she was an author she could go where she
  • 00:52:10
    liked
  • 00:52:11
    [Music]
  • 00:53:11
    it didn't last
  • 00:53:12
    less than a year after emma was
  • 00:53:14
    published
  • 00:53:15
    jane was back at chorton cottage and
  • 00:53:18
    seriously ill
  • 00:53:20
    she was suffering from aches and pains
  • 00:53:23
    from fevers and bilious attacks
  • 00:53:28
    one of her nieces remembers visiting on
  • 00:53:30
    jane and being shocked to find her up
  • 00:53:32
    here in her bedroom wearing a dressing
  • 00:53:34
    gown and sitting in a chair just like an
  • 00:53:37
    invalid
  • 00:53:39
    things were looking bad for jane
  • 00:53:41
    and she was only 41.
  • 00:53:46
    on the 24th of may 1817 jane and
  • 00:53:50
    cassandra made the 16-mile journey to
  • 00:53:52
    winchester in their brother james's
  • 00:53:55
    carriage
  • 00:53:56
    they came to be near a doctor jane's
  • 00:53:59
    last chance for her cure but she'd
  • 00:54:01
    already made her will
  • 00:54:04
    for two months college street was their
  • 00:54:07
    home these rented rooms in the city
  • 00:54:09
    center were just the sort of place that
  • 00:54:11
    genteel old maids ended up
  • 00:54:30
    my attendant is encouraging
  • 00:54:33
    and talks are making me quite well
  • 00:54:35
    [Music]
  • 00:54:36
    i live chiefly on the sofa
  • 00:54:39
    but i'm allowed to walk from one room to
  • 00:54:41
    the other
  • 00:54:43
    i've been out once in the sedan chair
  • 00:54:45
    and i'm to repeat it
  • 00:54:47
    and be promoted to a wheelchair as the
  • 00:54:50
    weather serves
  • 00:54:58
    the upside was that jane was living here
  • 00:55:00
    with the family that she'd selected for
  • 00:55:02
    herself spinsters looking out for each
  • 00:55:05
    other she got this house because of her
  • 00:55:07
    two good friends who lived just around
  • 00:55:09
    the corner
  • 00:55:10
    and as jane got sicker and sicker she
  • 00:55:13
    was looked after here by her sister and
  • 00:55:16
    her sister-in-law
  • 00:55:18
    jane spent the very last hours of her
  • 00:55:20
    life with her head in her sister
  • 00:55:23
    cassandra's lap
  • 00:55:25
    and then
  • 00:55:26
    very early in the morning at the 18th of
  • 00:55:28
    july 1817
  • 00:55:30
    she slipped away
  • 00:55:32
    in that room just up there
  • 00:55:42
    six days later jane's body was born
  • 00:55:46
    along college street
  • 00:55:51
    cassandra wrote i watched the little
  • 00:55:54
    mournful procession the length of the
  • 00:55:56
    street
  • 00:55:58
    and when it turned from my sight
  • 00:56:01
    i had lost her forever
  • 00:56:05
    walking alongside the coffin were three
  • 00:56:07
    of jane's brothers and a nephew the only
  • 00:56:11
    mourners
  • 00:56:35
    jane was brought here to winchester
  • 00:56:37
    cathedral
  • 00:56:38
    and placed in a vault on the north aisle
  • 00:56:42
    it was a prime location at last
  • 00:56:46
    a black marble gravestone
  • 00:56:49
    was laid over here
  • 00:56:58
    the inscription mentions the benevolence
  • 00:57:01
    of her heart
  • 00:57:03
    the sweetness of her temper and the
  • 00:57:06
    extraordinary endowments of her mind
  • 00:57:09
    that's as close as it gets to mentioning
  • 00:57:11
    her novels
  • 00:57:13
    when jane died she was just a youngish
  • 00:57:16
    unknown frail woman her name wasn't even
  • 00:57:19
    printed in her books
  • 00:57:21
    all this would change
  • 00:57:23
    a few years later one of the verges of
  • 00:57:26
    the cathedral was heard asking who is
  • 00:57:28
    this jane austen woman that everybody's
  • 00:57:31
    talking about
  • 00:57:33
    and now her fame almost eclipses that of
  • 00:57:36
    the cathedral today winchester cathedral
  • 00:57:39
    is perhaps best known
  • 00:57:42
    as jane's final home
  • 00:57:46
    [Music]
  • 00:57:58
    [Music]
  • 00:58:12
    a veritable who's who of award-winning
  • 00:58:14
    actors coming up next maggie smith and
  • 00:58:17
    tom courtney included keen to put on a
  • 00:58:19
    performance in our film comedy quartet
  • 00:58:22
    [Music]
  • 00:58:38
    you
Tag
  • Jane Austen
  • Stonely Abbey
  • inheritance
  • Steventon Rectory
  • music
  • Bath
  • novels
  • social class
  • writing
  • biography