📣 For more lifestyle news, click here to join our WhatsApp Channel and also follow us on Instagram
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
A letter, written by acclaimed author Jane Austen, sharing domestic news and neighbourhood gossip to her sister, Cassandra Austen, is all set to go on display at the author’s former house in Chawton, Hampshire, where she spent the last eight years of her life. The letter, dated 1798, is one of the 160 correspondents that have survived, and have come to Cheffins Auctioneers through a Cambridge resident’s estate who acquired it in 2000.
It consists of four pages and is written on a single large folio sheet folded three times. It will be part of an exhibition that explores Austen’s relationship with her sister, starting March 22.
Austen wrote the letter from Steventon to her sister Cassandra, who was staying with their elder brother, Edward Austen Knight, at Godmersham Park in Kent. It is a chatty, gossipy letter, full of family matters and local news — all told with Austen’s characteristic dry humour and biting wit. The director of Cheffins, Martin Millard, described the letter as “typical in its domestic style — it is a lively, vivid, funny and brilliant window into her personality.” He added, “Many of Jane’s letters to her sister were destroyed by Cassandra two or three years before her own death, making survivals rare.”
Professor Kathryn Sutherland, Jane Austen’s House Trustee, said, “As domestic art, Austen’s letters hold a special appeal for visitors to Jane Austen’s house,” adding that it will be a bright jewel in their growing collection, and they look forward to celebrating its arrival in the display.
Austen’s house acquired the letter through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme administered by the Arts Council and negotiated by Cheffins, to settle £140,000 in tax. The scheme permits those who have a bill for inheritance tax to pay by transferring significant historic, cultural and scientific objects and archives to the United Kingdom. It was first bequeathed to Austen’s niece, Fanny, Lady Knatchbull by Cassandra and inherited by Fanny’s son Lord Brabourne in 1882, who published it in his edition of the Letters of Jane Austen.
“My dear Cassandra” will run from March 22 to October 29 and is free with House entry. An online exhibit of the same will also be available for the viewers. The exhibition is part of the ‘Year of Cassandra’, celebrating the life of Cassandra Austen, 1773-1845.
📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates!
