A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Northanger Abbey
found so little favour in his eyes, that he chose to abide by his first
loss rather than risk farther expense by publishing such a work. It
seems to have lain for many years unnoticed in his drawers;
somewhat as the first chapters of ‘Waverley’ lurked forgotten
amongst the old fishing-tackle in Scott’s cabinet.° Tilneys,
Thorpes, and Morlands consigned apparently to eternal oblivion!
But when four novels of steadily increasing success had given the
writer some confidence in herself, she wished to recover the copyright
of this early work. One of her brothers° undertook the negotiation.
He found the purchaser very willing to receive back his
money, and to resign all claim to the copyright. When the bargain
was concluded and the money paid, but not till then, the negotiator
had the satisfaction of informing him that the work which
had been so lightly esteemed was by the author of ‘Pride and
Prejudice.’ I do not think that she was herself much mortified by
the want of early success. She wrote for her own amusement.
Money, though acceptable, was not necessary for the moderate
expenses of her quiet home. Above all, she was blessed with a
cheerful contented disposition, and an humble mind; and so
lowly did she esteem her own claims, that when she received 150l.
from the sale of ‘Sense and Sensibility,’ she considered it a
prodigious recompense for that which had cost her nothing.° It
cannot be supposed, however, that she was altogether insensible
to the superiority of her own workmanship over that of some contemporaries
who were then enjoying a brief popularity. Indeed a
few touches in the following extracts from two of her letters°
show that she was as quicksighted to absurdities in composition
as to those in living persons.
‘Mr. C.’s opinion is gone down in my list;° but as my paper
relates only to “Mansfield Park,” I may fortunately excuse myself
from entering Mr. D’s. I will redeem my credit with him by
writing a close imitation of “Self-Control,”° as soon as I can. I will
improve upon it. My heroine shall not only be wafted down an
American river in a boat by herself. She shall cross the Atlantic in
the same way; and never stop till she reaches Gravesend.’
‘We have got “Rosanne” in our Society,° and find it much as you
describe it; very good and clever, but tedious. Mrs. Hawkins’