The Thrilling Evidence of Jane Austen's Imagination

New York Times

11-06-2025

Visitors to the Morgan Library & Museum's new exhibition, 'A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250,' will notice that it is full of interesting personal items connected to the author. These include her turquoise and gold ring, briefly owned by the American pop star Kelly Clarkson and here on loan from Austen's house in Hampshire, England; a hand-sewn replica of a silk pelisse coat Austen is said to have worn; and a reproduction of the modest desk on which she wrote her six extraordinary novels, masterpieces of early-19th century English literature.
But the show, which marks the 250th anniversary of Austen's birth, persuasively puts much of its focus on her work — what she did and how and why she did it. Providing a vigorous counterargument to the image of Austen as a retiring spinster who wrote as a kind of amusing pastime, the show uses letters, manuscripts and more to trace the trajectory of her career and illustrate how seriously she took her vocation.
It's thrilling to be presented with the evidence. Here, for instance, is a tiny scrap of paper on which Austen listed the 'profits from my novels.' Here's one of three books in which she copied out some of her teenage writings — proof that she channeled her imagination into fiction, and considered how it might look in books, even as a girl. And here's a heavily emended page — full of crossed-out lines and inserted words — from an unfinished novel (posthumously published as 'The Watsons') showing Austen to be a diligent rewriter as well as a writer.
'We wanted to get the working copy in front of people because some of the myths about Austen's authorship that were promulgated after her death by family members included that she didn't care about fame, she didn't care about profit, and she didn't work hard,' said Juliette Wells, professor of literary studies at Goucher College and a co-curator, along with Dale Stinchcomb, of the exhibition.
It shows how Austen's family supported her work and 'examines how it was possible for Austen to publish her now-beloved novels when women generally were not permitted to become writers,' Stinchcomb, the Morgan's curator of literary and historical manuscripts, said.
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