- Chawton Cottage - Wikimedia Commons
Jane Austen's writing was enthusiastically supported by her family, most especially her father, the Rev. George Austen, who bought her writing paper and a portable writing desk made of mahogany for her 19th birthday in 1794. On that writing desk, Jane wrote her early novels, Susan (renamed Northanger Abbey), Sense and Sensiblity, and the first draft of Pride and Prejudice, entitled First Impressions. Rev. Austen contacted a publisher regarding First Impressions, but never received a request to send in the manuscript. Jane would not be deterred by that early rebuff, and she would go on to write Lady Susan, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, and the fragments Sanditon and The Watsons.
Popularity of Portable Writing Desks
Writing desks were rare in the latter part of the 18th century, when travel was difficult due to poor road conditions and few people ventured further than 12 miles from home. Light-weight and versatile, writing desks became increasingly popular as roads were paved over and people began to travel more frequently. About the size of an old-fashioned typewriter, portable writing boxes were made of wood and were easy to transport or rest on one's lap. Inside the desk was a writing surface embossed in leather and sloped at an ergonomically correct angle. The box also featured storage space for paper, quills, and ink pots, and an assortment of hidden compartments. Filled with personal writings, a writing box was considered as private a possession as a diary.
In 1800 the Austen family moved to Bath, where Jane wrote sparingly, only reworking Lady Susan and starting an unfinished manuscript of The Watsons. She did, however, continue to write her letters on that portable box. An image of her writing box is available on the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) website.
Jane Austen's Writing Table at Chawton Cottage
After her father's death in 1805 and her family's move to Chawton Cottage in 1809, Jane was able to write seriously again. She placed her writing box on a small, 12-sided walnut table in the general sitting room, which, being rather public, offered very little privacy. In that small space and on that tiny single-pedestal table she edited Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Susan (renamed Northanger Abbey), novels that she had written in her youth in her father's study in Hampshire.
The sitting room was subject to frequent interruptions by servants and visitors, but Jane took care not to have her writing, which included Emma and Mansfield Park, witnessed by anyone except her family. A swing door creaked whenever anyone entered the room from the outside, giving her ample warning to stash her writing away or to cover it with a small piece of blotting paper. It was said that she wrote Persuasion on small pieces of paper that could be easily concealed when she was interrupted. The system worked so well that she refused to have the creaking door fixed.
Provenance of Jane Austen's Writing Desk and Writing Table
After Jane's death in July of 1817, her sister Cassandra was the first to inherit the writing box and writing table. When Cassandra died, the writing desk was passed on from aunts to nieces “until Joan Austen-Leigh received it from her aunt, reinforcing Jane Austen’s remarks about ‘the importance of aunts” (Jane Austen Society of Australia, JASA).
Joan Austen-Leigh, Jane's great great great niece (through James Austen-Leigh) and a co-founder of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA), donated the writing desk (and Jane's spectacles and her sewing kit) to the British Library in 1999. The desk had been stashed in a suitcase for over 40 years in a closet in Canada. Visitors can view the desk in the Sir Joyhn Ritblat Gallery of the British Library.
A manservant was given the writing table after Cassandra died in 1845. Today it resides in the Jane Austen House Museum (Chawton Cottage) in the general sitting room by the window and door, much like the time when Jane wrote there. The tiny, single pedestal table can be viewed in situ at the Jane Austen House Museum.
Sources
- Tomalin, Claire. Writer's Rooms: Jane Austen. Guardian.UK. Web. 6 July. 2010
- The Notorious Creaking Door. Republic of Pemberley. Web. 6 July. 2010.
Vic Sanborn - I oversee two blogs: Jane Austen's World and Jane Austen Today, and write about Jane Austen and the Regency World and its manners and ...
