Memoir of Jane Austen

Transcribed from the 1871 Richard Bentley and Son edition by Les Bowler.
The Memoir of my Aunt, Jane Austen, has been received with more favour than I had ventured to expect. The notices taken of it in the periodical press, as well as letters addressed to me by many with whom I am not personally acquainted, show that an unabated interest is still taken in every particular that can be told about her. I am thus encouraged not only to offer a Second Edition of the Memoir, but also to enlarge it with some additional matter which I might have scrupled to intrude on the public if they had not thus seemed to call for it. In the present Edition, the narrative is somewhat enlarged, and a few more letters are added; with a short specimen of her childish stories. The cancelled chapter of ‘Persuasion’ is given, in compliance with wishes both publicly and privately expressed. A fragment of a story entitled ‘The Watsons’ is printed;
November 17, 1870.
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
Chapter IV. Removal from Steventon—Residence at Bath and at Southampton—Settling at Chawton
Chapter V. Description of Jane Austen’s person, character, and tastes
Chapter VI. Habits of Composition resumed after a long interval—First publication—The interest taken by the Author in the success of her Works
Chapter VII. Seclusion from the literary world—Notice from the Prince Regent—Correspondence with Mr. Clarke—Suggestions to alter her style of writing
Chapter VIII. Slow growth of her fame—Ill success of first attempts at publication—Two Reviews of her works contrasted