101 Things You Didn't Know About Jane Austen by PATRICE HANNON

Author:PATRICE HANNON
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Adams Media, an F+W Publications
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

52 “O H! WHAT A HENRY.”

Caroline Austen writes of her aunt that she “was a very affectionate sister to all her Brothers—One of them in particular was her especial pride and delight.” That was Henry Austen, the fourth son. Caroline’s brother James-Edward Austen-Leigh writes that Henry “had great conversational powers, and inherited from his father an eager and sanguine disposition. He was a very entertaining companion, but had perhaps less steadiness of purpose, certainly less success in life, than his brothers.” Henry was by all accounts a charmer, his father’s favorite as well as Jane’s. After remarking to Cassandra that she has just had an entertaining letter from him, Jane adds, “there is no merit to him in that, he cannot help being amusing.”

With such a personality, Henry no doubt performed with spirit in the family theatricals at Steventon, where he flirted with his then-married cousin Eliza, whom he would later marry. Before Eliza accepted his second proposal, however, he was engaged to another woman. Henry always claimed that Mary Pearson was the one who ended that engagement, but with Henry you have to wonder about the circumstances. Like James, Henry attended Oxford University, and he contributed pieces to James’s magazine, The Loiterer. He served as an officer in the Oxford Militia during the war with France, for which he gave up his plan to be ordained. It seems that Henry was attracted to livelier occupations than that of clergyman, at least as a young man.

After leaving the militia, Henry Austen set himself up as a banker. He and Eliza seemed to be living well in London at the time of Mr. Austen’s death, yet he pleaded his “present precarious income” when offering to chip in £50 per year to help support his mother and sisters.

Whatever his income, he loved visiting his brother Edward’s grand estate Godmersham, and he frequently did so without his wife. He probably felt it was the kind of life that suited him best, since he had the taste and abilities to appreciate it. Being a very entertaining companion for adults and children alike, he was always most welcome there.

As we’ve seen, Henry assisted Jane a great deal with the publication of her novels, and Eliza helped too. When Eliza died in 1813, Jane noted of her brother, “his Mind is not a Mind for affliction.” Indeed, before long he was involved with several new women.

In 1816, Henry’s bank crashed and Henry was declared bankrupt. His uncle James Leigh-Perrot and brother Edward had guaranteed the very large amounts of £10,000 and £20,000, which they then lost, and others in the family lost smaller amounts, including even Jane, who lost £13. She refers to the bankruptcy in a letter as “the late sad Event in Henrietta St.” Despite the hardship Henry’s failure caused them, the Austen family drew loyally together as always and supported him. Henry himself, resilient as ever, remained cheerful, and he was not blamed for the trouble the collapse of his bank caused the Austens.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.