Jane Austen's twenties: a close look at a writer's formative decade

Jane Austen's twenties (1795-1805) constitute the formative decade of the writer who would give English literature six completed novels. According to a HistoryExtra podcast episode devoted to this topic, over this decade Austen wrote the first drafts of 'Sense and Sensibility', 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Northanger Abbey', while also experiencing adult social life.

Jane Austen was born in 1775 in the village of Steventon in Hampshire. Her father, Reverend George Austen, served as the local clergyman, and in the intellectual environment of the eight-child Austen household it was customary for younger members to be encouraged in literary production. By the 1795-1796 period, when she entered her twenties, Jane had already written, during childhood, short parodies and satires known as the 'Juvenilia'.

The draft 'Elinor and Marianne', which she wrote in the summer of 1796, would form the basis of the later 'Sense and Sensibility'. This early draft, written in letter form, was one of her last narrative experiments before transitioning to the third-person narration she would later prefer throughout her literary career. Her abandonment of the letter form has been regarded as a defining turning point in giving her novels their psychological depth.

During the same period, the relationship with Tom Lefroy stands out as a significant event in Austen's personal life. In the winter of 1795-1796, a romantic relationship began with the Irish law student Tom Lefroy, whom she met at the Steventon Ball. This relationship is documented in the letters Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra in January 1796; in these letters she shared the evenings she danced with Lefroy and their mutual emotional closeness. The relationship ended through the intervention of Lefroy's family; Lefroy married another woman in 1799.

In the period 1797-1798, Austen completed the first draft of the novel then known as 'First Impressions', later published as 'Pride and Prejudice'. Her father sent this draft in 1797 to the London publisher Thomas Cadell; despite Cadell's rejection, Austen's effort to write continued with determination. This experience of rejection should be seen as an important moment in Austen's process of learning the publishing system.

In 1801, the Austen family's move from Steventon to Bath created an interruption in Jane's rhythm of literary production. The difficulty of adapting to the 'city' lifestyle of Bath, combined with the family's social change, was among the topics that occupied Jane mentally during her later final revisions of 'Northanger Abbey'. Bath would feature as an important setting in later novels (especially 'Persuasion' and 'Northanger Abbey').

In 1802, Austen accepted a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither for one night, then withdrew her acceptance the following morning. This incident is an important data point for biographers questioning Austen's personal understanding of marriage. In the 1997 biography by historian Claire Tomalin, it was suggested that this refusal could be interpreted as an expression of Austen's devotion to her literary career.

In 1803, Austen sold the first draft of 'Northanger Abbey' (then titled 'Susan') to the publisher Richard Crosby for £10; however, Crosby held the book without publishing it. Austen repurchased the copyright in 1816; this is an important indicator of the publishing difficulties Austen experienced at the start of her literary career.

In 1805, her father's death drove the family into financial difficulty and led to a move from Bath to Southampton. Austen's twenties can thus be regarded as the preparatory period for the next literary phase (the 'Mansfield Park', 'Emma' and 'Persuasion' she would write during the Chawton period). Their settling in Chawton in 1809 marked the beginning of Austen's mature period.

The importance of Austen's twenties, for biographers and literary critics, is critical for being able to trace the origins of the writer's mature work. The 2017 study 'Jane Austen at Home' by historian Lucy Worsley emphasised that the changes laying the foundations of Austen's literary production took place during this period. This article does not constitute literary-historical or biographical-research advice; the information is based on HistoryExtra reporting and on the work of academic historians such as Tomalin and Worsley.