Jane Austen's The History of England [Facsimile] [Hardcover]

Jane Austen (Author), A. S. Byatt (Introduction), Deirdre Le Faye (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1993

Introduction by A. S. Byatt. The first-ever full-color facsimile edition of one of Jane Austen's early works, with delightful portraits painted by her sister Cassandra, followed by a transcribed version of the text. Sixteen-year-old Jane describes herself as "a partial, prejudiced, and ignorant historian," and her gleeful parody hints at the humor she would later bring to her novels. "Treats royalty with less respect (and more wit) than a British tabloid."--Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Aficionados of Jane Austen and of historical satire will delight in this spoof on the history of the British monarchy from 1399 to 1649. Austen's note that this history is "By a partial, prejudiced & ignorant Historian (Note: There will be very few Dates in this History)" hints at the tone of the work. What follows are brief, opinionated pieces, ranging from two sentences on Edward V "who lived so little a while that nobody had time to draw his picture" to 19 sentences on Elizabeth, of whom "It was the peculiar Misfortune... to have had bad Ministers--Since wicked as she herself was, she could not have committed such extensive Mischief, had not these vile & abandoned Men connived at, and encouraged her in her Crimes." This publication contains a transcription as well as a full-color facsimile of the handwritten journal of 16-year-old Austen and small cameo paintings of the royals by her older sister, Cassandra, showing the early developed talent and wit of both sisters. Highly recommended.
- Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Lib., New Brunswick, N. J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

It's a truism that writers, like musicians, must practice their scales before they take flight. Are the practice lessons themselves of any literary value? Rarely, judging from these two volumes, other than as scholarly footnotes--although Jane Austen's The History of England, composed in 1791, when the future author of Pride and Prejudice was only 16, proves a happy exception. Though the 60-page manuscript has appeared previously in Austen collections (most recently in Oxford University Press's Catharine and Other Writings, 1993), it's never before been published in facsimile--an important point since Austen's handwritten manuscript was accompanied by profuse color portraits drawn by the writer's older sister, Cassandra, reproduced here. Intended to burlesque Oliver Goldsmith's wildly popular, four-volume The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II, Austen's little book, as A.S. Byatt points out in an introduction, displays ``an unusual mixture of lively energy and gleefully confident control''--as witnessed by this opening sentence to Austen's brief life of Henry V: ``This Prince after he succeeded to the throne/grew quite reformed and amiable, forsaking all his dissipated Companions, & never thrashing Sir William again.'' That sort of dry, sophisticated wit abounds throughout, making this an esoteric pleasure. Generally less involving are most of the bits of juvenilia excavated by Paul Mandelbaum, a freelance journalist, in First Words. Arranged alphabetically by their 42 authors, from Isaac Asimov to Tobias Wolff, the entries include such items as Jill McCorkle's short-short ``The Night Santa Failed to Come,'' written when she was seven; eight-year-old Amy Tan's essay, ``What the Library Means to Me,'' and--far more polished--a long mystery story (``Untitled Mystery'') from 14-year-old John Updike. The collection makes clear that, even when very young, many writers work with ideas that will hallmark their adult work (e.g., Stephen King at age nine writing in ``Jhonathan and the Witchs'' [sic] of a quest confounded by supernatural evil), and Mandelbaum does an energetic job of pointing out, in introductions and sidebars, thematic relations between each author's older and newer writings--though his comments do sometimes sound almost tongue-in-cheek: ``The childhood piece that follows is precocious in its prose and is an early foray in [the author's] ongoing exploration of masculine terrain but doesn't quite anticipate his roles as literary philosopher and cultural provocateur''--this pronouncement applied to ten-year-old Norman Mailer's ``adventure epic,'' ``The Martian Invasion.'' Still, Mandelbaum's collection has a certain novelty interest and, for manic completists, it no doubt will prove a must. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 60 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; First Edition edition (January 10, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565120558
• ISBN-13: 978-1565120556
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #590,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Though the domain of Jane Austen's novels was as circumscribed as her life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the equal of the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, she was educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writing sketches and satires of popular novels for her family's entertainment. As a clergyman's daughter from a well-connected family, she had an ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At twenty-one, she began a novel called "The First Impressions" an early version of Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, on her father's retirement, the family moved to the fashionable resort of Bath. Two years later she sold the first version of Northanger Abby to a London publisher, but the first of her novels to appear was Sense and Sensibility, published at her own expense in 1811. It was followed by Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). After her father died in 1805, the family first moved to Southampton then to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Despite this relative retirement, Jane Austen was still in touch with a wider world, mainly through her brothers; one had become a very rich country gentleman, another a London banker, and two were naval officers. Though her many novels were published anonymously, she had many early and devoted readers, among them the Prince Regent and Sir Walter Scott. In 1816, in declining health, Austen wrote Persuasion and revised Northanger Abby, Her last work, Sandition, was left unfinished at her death on July 18, 1817. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen's identity as an author was announced to the world posthumously by her brother Henry, who supervised the publication of Northanger Abby and Persuasion in 1818.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most amusing pieces in English Literature, March 3, 1998

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[e-mail] (Tre Hellman, San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jane Austen's The History of England (Hardcover)

Jane Austen may be best known for her biting and sarcastic wit, her compassion for her characters, and her understanding of the truth of their lives and situations. But this short piece of juvenilia combines all of her mature insight with the confidence, humour, and unmitigated self-satisfaction of a younger and more whimsical Austen. Definitely not to be overlooked in favour of her more serious work, this book will take merely minutes to read but leave you with astoundingly funny comments to treasure and smile over for years to come. It is Jane Austen at her very best: uninhibited, cruel, funny and ultimately self-deprecating. She knows what she is doing and does it with consumate skill. A must read for any Austen fan or anyone with a sense of humour.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Austen's brief History of time (and slightly rewritten), December 26, 2000

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A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jane Austen's The History of England (Hardcover)

Jane Austen wrote these short snippets on a number of the rulers of England in chronological order - using, as she says, 'very few dates'. The result is a wonderful collection of highly prejudicial outlines of various Kings and Queens - and after all the purpose of history to be scandalous and slanderous can be undermined by sticking too closely to extraneous detail such as dates and so on. The whole thing would probably take you much less than hour to read. Austen proves her talent for sharp observation and wit from an early age for this little book was written while she was still a teenager in the early 1790's. Its a lovely introduction to her writing for those who haven't had much to do with Austen before but are keen to try her out.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jane Austne's funniest book, October 26, 2003

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L O'connor (richmond, surrey United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jane Austen's The History of England (Hardcover)

This hilarious little book is full of wonderfully biased observations on the Kings and Queens of England between henry the 4th and Charles the 1st. Of Henry VI she writes fiercely "I cannot say much for this monarch's sense, nor would I if I could, for he was a Lancastrian" She is a supporter of Richard III's claim to innocence, averring that he may not have murdered his wife for "if Perkin Warbeck were really the Duke of York, why not might Lambert Simnel be the widow of Richard?" She includes a very rique charade on the homosexual habits of king James I. I feel that Sellar and Yeatman, who wrote '1066 and All That'may have derived inspiration from this book, her N.B. at the beginning 'there will be very few Dates in this History' has a very Sellar and yeatman sound. I increasingly find Jane Asuten's Juvenilia more amusing than her later works, and this book is a prime example.