title: A Memoir of Jane Austen: And Other Family Recollections (Oxford World's Classics)
author: J. E. Austen-Leigh
description: James Edward Austen-Leigh's <em>Memoir</em> of his aunt Jane Austen was published in 1870, over fifty years after her death. Together with the shorter recollections of James Edward's two sisters, Anna Lefroy and Caroline Austen, the <em>Memoir</em> remains the prime authority for her life and continues to inform all subsequent accounts. These are family memories, the record of Jane Austen's life shaped and limited by the loyalties, reserve, and affection of nieces and nephews recovering in old age the outlines of the young aunt they had each known. They still remembered the shape of her bonnet and the tone of her voice, and their first-hand accounts bring her vividly before us. Their declared partiality also raises fascinating issues concerning biographical truth, and the terms in which all biography functions.<br /> <br /> This edition brings together for the first time these three memoirs, and also includes Jane's brother Henry Austen's "Biographical Notice" of 1818 and his less known "Memoir" of 1833.
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  # Memoir of Jane Austen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### James Edward Austen-Leigh
  
  
  This page formatted 2005 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  PREFACE.
  
  
  CHAPTER I. Introductory Remarks—Birth of Jane
  
  
  Austen—Her Family Connections—Their Influence on her Writings.
  
  
  CHAPTER II. Description of Steventon—Life at
  
  
  Steventon—Changes of Habits and Customs in the last Century.
  
  
  CHAPTER III. Early Compositions—Friends at Ashe—A
  
  
  very old Letter—Lines on the Death of Mrs. Lefroy—Observations on
  
  
  Jane Austen's Letter-writing—Letters.
  
  
  SCENE I.—A Garden. Enter CORYDON.
  
  
  SCENE II.—A parlour in HUMBUG'S house. MRS. HUMBUG
  
  
  . >and FANNY discovered at work.
  
  
  SCENE III.—The curtain rises, and discovers SIR
  
  
  EDWARD SPANGLE. I>reclined in an elegant attitude on a sofa fast asleep.
  
  
  CHAPTER IV. Removal from Steventon—Residences at
  
  
  Bath and at Southampton—Settling at Chawton.
  
  
  CHAPTER VI. Habits of Composition resumed after a
  
  
  long interval—First public