Jane Austen's letter to her sister Cassandra (1815)

“Life, wrote Dr. Johnson, ‘is made up of little things.’ No English writer could supply trifles with more vivid spontaneity than Jane Austen. Her letters to her sister, Cassandra, form one of the most important correspondences of her life; of those extant, this letter is one of the longest. It was written from her brother Henry’s home in London, where Jane Austen stayed from October 4 to December 16 in 1815. 

“The ‘P.R.’ is the Prince Regent, who ‘had read and admired all [her] publications,’ and the work mentioned is Emma, published by John Murray (1748–1843) in December 1815, but dated 1816. 

“The people mentioned in the letter are brothers, sisters-in-law, and nieces, except for the unidentified Miss Palmer, Mrs. Kelly, Mr. Barlow, and Miss Herries. Mr. Haden is Charles Thomas Haden, surgeon (1786–1824), and Eleanor Bridges is the daughter of Sir Brook William Bridges. Captain Mirvan and Madame Duval appear in Fanny Burney’s Evelina (Letter XXI) and ‘B Chapel’ is Belgrave Chapel.”—Lola Szladits

Transcription: Read the full letter